Amsterdam - At least the Dutch are as animal-friendly as ever: The Party for Animals (PvdD), which lobbies for humane treatment for all creatures great and small, managed to boost their number of seats in the Dutch communal elections on Wednesday to 26. "We are getting stronger," PvdD leader Marianne Thieme rejoices. Such joy cannot be said to prevail among of the Dutch Muslim Party (NMP), which seeks to promote trust and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. The NMP did not gain a single seat in the elections, whose clear winner is the Muslim-hater Geert Wilders.
Wilders, a 46-year-old insurance agent and qualified lawyer, declared a historic victory at the election celebrations of his Freedom Party (PVV) in the city of Almere.
It was in this city, not far from Amsterdam, that the PVV managed to emerge from scratch as the strongest party in the town council, overtaking the social-democratic Dutch Labour Party (PvdA).
And in The Hague's city council the PVV were again hot-on-the- heels of the PVdA, who have governed the city for decades, becoming the second biggest party.
Wilders can hardly wait until June 9, when the Netherlands is due to hold elections to the "Tweede Kamer," the lower house of parliament.
"This success is our springboard to victory on June 9," Wilders shouted to his supporters, who have nicknamed their blond leader Mozart, at the party in Almere.
His supporters are, however, not suspected of listening to classical music.
The political science institute at the University of Tilburg considers Wilders' party, founded in 2006, a "non-democratic, neo- right-wing extremist organisation with an authoritarian leadership."
Today, the PVV has nine of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament. Recent surveys suggest that it might win 24 to 27 seats on June 9.
"We will be the strongest party," Wilders prophesied to the cheering crowd in Almere. "We will reconquer the Netherlands!"
Wilders' speeches have something of the tone of an earlier era of political rhetoric, which might be recognized from Nazi propaganda films. Wilders could be imagined in one of these films, shouting "Today Almere and The Hague, tomorrow the whole of the Netherlands!"
While Wilders is planning his route into parliament, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats are still licking their wounds after their coalition government broke down two weeks ago. They had been in government for three years until they split after a fight over the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan.
Wilders enjoys slamming the parties in power.
"The leftist elite still believes in a multicultural society, in cosying up to criminals, in development aid and in a European superstate with high taxes," he said. "But the rest of the Netherlands has a completely different opinion."
According to political scientist Meindert Fennema, who has just written a biography of Wilders called De Tovenaarsleerling, (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), lambasting the "elite" is a well-proven strategy of Wilders to attract voters.
"The PVV's strength lies in its self-representation as an uncouth, uncultivated political outcast," Fennema says.
PVV supporters are mainly "hard working people with a relatively low education," he adds.
According to Fennema, this is why Wilders successfully focused on three issues in his campaign: Railing against Muslim immigrants, exaggerating security problems and promising to prevent the raising of the retirement age from 65 to 67.
It is without doubt not just the dramatic loss of trust in the political establishment amid the economic crisis that has benefited Wilders.
It is hard to ignore the failure of the state's soft stance on Muslim immigrants who have been presented with countless integration schemes.
Public funding for mosques and Muslim schools has happily been accepted by the beneficiaries. However, advocates of a strict dissociation from western life-style often have the biggest say in such places.
Wilders' alternative proposal to current integration policy sounds like a call to civil war. Mosques should be shut down, the "fascist" Koran and headscarfs in public places banned. "Decent" citizens should form vigilante groups to fight against rampaging Muslim youths, whom Wilders calls "Moroccan street terrorists."
Since January 20, Wilders has been on trial for charges of fomenting racial hatred.
But a criminal process might be the wrong approach to tackle the populist's upsurge, critics say. And they might be right: Since the beginning of the trial, public approval of Wilders has surged.
Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312490,tomorrow-the-whole-country--wilders-on-the-rise--feature.html.
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