When we launched the satirical '40,000 blowjobs' campaign, we were a political movement called 'NEE'. The campaign was a stab at the political climate that was filled with false promises and was aimed at raising political awareness, stimulating people to be more critical and active in demanding politicans in general to practice what they preach. The campaign was originally intended only for Belgium only, as it was a direct parody on other Belgian parties who were making ridiculous promises (such as 400,000 new jobs if they would get elected), but it immediately took off internationally and became an action that raised political awareness worldwide.

The campaign ran in the form of a website on which Tania Derveaux (who was our leading senate candidate at that moment) promised 40,000 blowjobs to her voters, allowing people to register on the website to be among the lucky ones. The website quickly became even more popular than whitehouse.gov and was all over the media worldwide.

NEE was an impartial protest movement running for senate in the Belgian elections of June 10th 2007.

NEE worked around political awareness and offered voters in Belgium the option to vote ‘no’ if they found that none of the parties deserve their vote. ‘No’-votes would simply create empty seats in parliament, resulting in a loss of income and power for the other parties, and giving the voters the power to sanction politicians if needed.

This is a concept that had never before been implemented in any political system worldwide. We introduced the idea on an international scale because it makes for a higher level of democracy in which politicians are forced to live up to their promises as people are actually able to fire them if they wish. This would also result in a clearer view on the popularity of extremist parties, because people often vote for extremes out of dissatisfaction but don’t necessarily agree with those parties.

The old dutch NEE site can be found here.