Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Organised around the theme of 'Latin America Meets Europe', the conference featured a number of speakers including Marco Enríquez-Ominami, a surprise success in the last presidential election in Chile, Virgilio Hernández, a promising politician from Ecuador (pictured), Kathleen Ferrier, a member of the Dutch parliament, and Wim Grootscholten, commercial manager of Rijk Zwaan SA.

One highlight of the conference occurred when Kathleen Ferrier received the ELE-award for her contribution to cooperation with Latin America. Ruud Koole, the Vice President of the NIMD Board, described her as "the face of Latin America in the Dutch Parliament, and the face of the Dutch Parliament in Latin America."

Virgilio Hernández was also scheduled to speak at NIMD during his visit, however due to unforeseen circumstances his lecture was cancelled. To compensate, the full text of Mr Hernández's speech at the ELE conference, entitled 'The democratisation of democracy: on the road to post-liberal democracy', can be downloaded by clicking on the document link above (Spanish text only).

For more information abot the conference, visit the ELE website.

Image by Hans Groen.