By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

 

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilder speaking to supporters in Almere. / Source: Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/AFP/Getty Images

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Wednesday’s local elections in the Netherlands brought major gains for Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV).  The PVV, which ran in two cities, came in first in election results in Almere, and second in in The Hague, where the Labour Party retained a slight lead.

Just days before the elections, Wilders said that a ban on Muslim headscarves in public places would be a non-negotiable facet of the PVV’s platform. In response, dozens of protesters, men and women, Muslim and non-Muslim, wore head scarves as they turned out to vote in Almere and The Hague.  

A third of the city of Almere, with its population of  190,000,  is of immigrant origin. Thirty-five-year old Kadriye Kacar, a Dutch-born resident of Almere of Turkish descent, said: “People are looking at us in a new way today as if they are thinking, ‘We won and you are leaving’.”

Wilders, visibly jubilant by election returns, told his supporters in Almere: “Today Almere and The Hague, tomorrow the whole Netherlands . . . We are going to win back the Netherlands from the leftist elite that believes in cuddling criminals, that believes in Islam and multiculturalism and the idiocy of development aid and the European superstate.”

Wilders has called for an immediate stop to immigration from Muslim countries, a ban on mosque construction, and the imposition of €1,000 a year tax on Muslim women who choose to wear headscarves. He has also likened the Qur’an to Mein Kampf, and wants Muslim immigrants deported.

Two weeks ago the ruling Christian Democrat-Labour coalition government collapsed after a disagreement about prolonging the Dutch military presence in Afghanistan beyond August.  The collapse of the ruling coalition prompted the local elections, which were the starting point of an intense three-month national campaign period which will end in June.  The latest opinion polls have indicated that the PVV is likely to take twenty-seven of the one hundred and fifty seats in the Dutch parliament.

Wilders has indicated that he is willing to make the compromises necessary to form partnerships with other parties, but it is yet unclear as to whether other parties will be willing to work with the extremist PVV.

The PVV gains reflect a drift to the right in Dutch politics which has been underway since the anti-immigration and anti-Islam politics of Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered during the 2002 Dutch national election campaign. Fortuyn’s assassin, animal rights activist Volkert van der Graaf, claimed that he had assassinated Fortuyn to prevent him from carrying out his anti-immigration agenda.

Agnes Kant of the Dutch Socialist Party stated that Wilders is a threat to samenleving, Dutch society’s history of allowing diverse ethnic and religious groups to live together. Wilders retorted:  “Agnes, thanks very much!”

Muslims now make up six percent, or one million, of the Netherland’s population of sixteen million.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Anti-Islamists gain in Dutch poll – 6 March 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald – Foothold for far right in Dutch local elections – 6 March 2010

Reuters – Dutch concerns over Islam, globalisation drive Wilders’ support – 5 March 2010

RNW – Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam party makes major gains – 4 March 2010

The Guardian – Geert Wilders’s party wins seat in Dutch elections – early results – 4 March 2010

Financial Times – Gains for far-right in Dutch elections – 3 March 2010