"Dare to be middle class": Timmermans launches "new left" vision

Frans Timmermans has launched his campaign for a new centre-left party that would build a “new welfare state” against global uncertainty, but also “dare to be a party of the middle classes”. Timmermans, currently leader of the alliance of the GroenLinks and Labour (PvdA) parties, offered an alternative to the “damaging politics of austerity” of recent years, pledging to invest in education and healthcare as well as defence spending. In a speech to party delegates in Utrecht, he also proposed...