CNN.com: Debate boost for Dutch opposition
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Debate boost for Dutch opposition
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- The leader of the Dutch opposition Labour party, Wouter Bos, won a television debate with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende before a November 22 general election, a poll and newspapers said on Saturday.
Bos and Balkenende of the Christian Democrats debated issues ranging from childcare to pensions, the economy to immigration in an hour-long debate broadcast live on RTL television on Friday evening, watched by 1.7 million people, or about 10 percent of the Dutch population.
Labour had been ahead in opinion polls for much of 2006, but the Christian Democrats (CDA) pulled slightly ahead in recent weeks, buoyed by a booming economy and falling unemployment.
