AMSTERDAM, 14/10/06 - The leftwing Green (GroenLinks) councillors in Amsterdam want the capital to provide subsidies for women who want to become prostitutes.

GroenLinks council member Marieke Doorninck believes the prostitution sector would be "more respectable" if the municipality regulated which women sat behind their windows as "independent entrepreneurs." The city should also provide for good accommodation and cooperate on a quality hallmark for brothels.

GroenLinks, along with Labour (PvdA), forms the administration in Amsterdam. PvdA council member Karina Schaapman however emphatically rejects the plan. "Do they still not understand at GroenLinks that the ideal picture from the 1970s no longer exists? I oppose these delusions. It is a lamentable plan."

Schaapman was a prostitute herself in the past and has written a book about it. She says there are so many damaging aspects to the profession - legal in the Netherlands since 2000 - that only discouragement is an option.

Doorninck argues that there is a unique opportunity to rescue prostitution from the sphere of oppression. If prostitutes working independently were helped to set up businesses by the municipality, she thinks this would be an example for the rest of the sector. "Apparently, GroenLinks believes that women end up in prostitution via a professional orientation course," countered Schaapman.