Radio Nederland reported that Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party made solid gains in its first local election contests in the new town of Almere northeast of Amsterdam and the Hague. Under the headline of Radio Nederland noted:The anti-Islam Freedom Party of far-right politician Geert Wilders has made major gains in local elections held in the Netherlands. Taking part in two cities it has become the largest party in Almere and the second largest in The Hague.
Mr. Wilders was visibly buoyed by the results and was characteristically combative saying this was the first step in the upcoming campaign for parliamentary elections.
“The national campaign begins today in Almere and The Hague, tomorrow in all of the Netherlands… On 9 June, we’ll conquer the Netherlands,” said Mr. Wilders
And, of course, Geert Wilders now has his eye on the larger prize. The Freedom Party has profited more than any other from the fall of the Dutch cabinet ten days ago. The party currently has 9 seats in parliament (out of 150).
If voters had elected a new parliament on Wednesday, the Freedom Party would have won between 24 and 27 seats. In one poll, it would be the largest single party. If his party does that well come June, Geert Wilders could become the next prime minister.
The national opinion polls also indicate that forming the next coalition will be more difficult than ever. Dutch coalition governments are usually made up of two or three parties. The next coalition will likely need four or more parties to reach a majority in parliament.
Meanwhile, the Times On-line highlighted Wilders arrival in the UK on Friday to show his anti-Islam Film, Fitna, in the House of Lords at the invitation of Lord Pearson, Chairman of the UK Independent Party and Baroness Caroline Cox. But there could be a bit of a punch up near Westminster, as the English Defense League could be squaring off at radical Muslim groups protesting Wilders. In a piece headlined: “Geert Wilders returns to Britain, looking for a fight”, Times-on-line noted:
Nicknamed “Mozart” on account of a platinum hairdo that looks strikingly like an 18th-century wig, Mr. Wilders has played on the discords in Dutch society with virtuoso skill. As in Britain, many Dutch voters are alarmed by the scale of immigration, battered by the global economic crisis, culturally anxious and increasingly receptive to his grim warnings about a “tsunami of Islamification”.
The political heir to Pim Fortuyn, the Dutch populist politician who called for a halt to Muslim immigration and who was murdered in the 2002 election campaign, Mr. Wilders has portrayed himself as the only politician in his country brave enough to stand up to militant Islam, a threat that he has compared to Nazism. “A century ago there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today there are about one million. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European civilisation,” he predicts.
In January a Dutch court ordered the public prosecutor to try Mr. Wilders on charges of fomenting hatred and discrimination. Mr. Wilders indicated that he would call witnesses in order to prove Koran-inspired violence, including Mohammed Bouyeri, the man convicted of murdering the Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh in 2004.
Although he faces 16 months in prison if convicted, the trial represents a political goldmine for Mr. Wilders and helps to explain his recent rise in opinion polls. If he is convicted he will paint himself as martyr to political correctness; if he is acquitted he will claim vindication. The trial has been suspended until after the election.
Inadvertently, Britain also did much to boost his standing in February last year by banning him from entering the country as an “undesirable person”, citing EU laws enabling member states to exclude someone whose presence could threaten public security. Mr. Wilders loudly condemned Gordon Brown as “the biggest coward in Europe” and some 84 per cent of Dutch voters objected to the way that Mr. Wilders had been ejected by Britain.
The ban was later overturned by an asylum and immigration tribunal. On Friday, at the invitation of the UKIP leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch and Baroness Cox of Queensbury, he will show Fitna to MPs, peers and guests before giving a press conference at Westminster.
A comment posted on the Times on-line piece had a suggestion as to whom Wilders might invite in his defense, the “Green Prince”, Mosab Hassan Youssef, the son of a Hamas Sheik who converted to Christianity and became an effective spy for Israel’s Shin Bet foiling many suicide bombing attempts. The comment cited Youssef’s characterization of Islam from a recent interview in terms that appear as if they came from a Wilders’ script:
During his 50-minute interview, for which he arrived with armed security, Youssef took shots at Hamas leaders including political chief Khaled Meshaal. He lashed out at Hamas, saying the organization lives in the Middle Ages.
And he hurled his most inflammatory comments at Islam, which he called a religion that teaches people to kill.
"It is not a religion of peace," said Youssef, who converted to Christianity. "The biggest terrorist is the God of the Quran. I know this is very dangerous and this will offend many people. The more you follow the steps of the prophet of Islam and the God of Islam, the more you get close to being a terrorist."
And he hurled his most inflammatory comments at Islam, which he called a religion that teaches people to kill.
"It is not a religion of peace," said Youssef, who converted to Christianity. "The biggest terrorist is the God of the Quran. I know this is very dangerous and this will offend many people. The more you follow the steps of the prophet of Islam and the God of Islam, the more you get close to being a terrorist."
We had suggested in a prior post that should Wilders’ Freedom Party do well in the March 3rd Dutch local elections Wilders could end up being elected and asked by Queen Beatrix to help form the next ruling coalition in the Netherlands as its Prime Minister. This despite his Amsterdam criminal trial on trumped up ‘hate speech’ and ‘racism’ charges.
