[SingleMan]

Dutch Voters Split, and Right Surges
By STEPHEN CASTLE and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 10, 2010


THE HAGUE — After the first election in a euro-zone country since the European economic crisis, Dutch voters found themselves divided politically on Thursday and surprised by the surge in popularity of an anti-immigrant party.

With no party winning a majority in the 150-seat Parliament, the result of Wednesday’s voting is likely to mean a long and difficult negotiation over a new governing coalition that could contain three or more parties.

The pro-business Dutch Liberal Party had 31 seats and the center-left Labor Party 30, with 98 percent of the votes counted. But the far-right Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders demanded a share of government after it came in third with 24 seats, more than doubling its representation in the 150-member Parliament.

“We want to be part of the new government,” declared Mr. Wilders, whose party wants to end immigration from Muslim countries and ban new mosques.

“The impossible has happened,” he told a party gathering. “The Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam.”

The front-page headline Thursday in the NRC Next newspaper declared “A divided Netherlands.”

“Never has the voters’ message been so mixed,” NRC Next said in an editorial. “A stable governing coalition with three parties does not seem possible.”

The Christian Democrats, who led the last four coalitions, were punished by voters, winning only 21 seats, down from 41. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, 54, announced that he was quitting as the leader of the party and as a legislator.

Among the other parties, the Socialist Party got 15 seats, down from 25, the Green GroenLinks and centrist D66 made gains to get 10 each, and the Christian Union will be holding five seats, having lost one.

Official results will be released on Tuesday.

While Labor made a late surge behind the former mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, the general mood of the voters was toward economic austerity and nationalism.

The strong showing of the populist Mr. Wilders, who combines far-right nationalism with leftist economic ideas, may lead to his party’s being asked to join a governing coalition for the first time.

Mr. Wilders, 46, says that Islam is the biggest threat facing his country. He faces criminal prosecution, accused of inciting hatred after he equated radical Islam with Nazism in a film and called for pages to be ripped out of the Koran. He also favors banning the Koran, new mosques and the wearing of full facial veils by Muslim women.

Once a model of staid stability, Dutch political life has been volatile for years. The country was convulsed by the assassination of the anti-immigration campaigner Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and then two years later by the murder of Theo van Gogh, who had made a documentary critical of Islam.

A campaign that many thought would focus on immigration and Afghanistan instead seemed to turn on economic issues, with voters apparently embracing the Liberal Party’s message of austerity and spending cuts — but no tax increases — to reduce the expanding budget deficit.

But reaction to immigration was never far below the surface, with even the Liberals taking pages out of Mr. Wilders’ policies and vowing to keep immigrants from getting social benefits for 10 years.

Politicians agree that any new administration will have to make significant budget cuts to curb a projected deficit of 6.6 percent of gross domestic product this year. So far, the Netherlands has not unveiled a big austerity package, but large-scale reductions in public spending are expected next year.

The election was called in February when the Labor Party withdrew from the government, refusing to approve plans to keep Dutch troops in Afghanistan. The Labor Party, which nominated Mr. Cohen, 62, renowned for his tolerant running of Amsterdam, did well in early campaigning.

But the economic crisis prompted the Dutch, who share many of the same economic instincts as the Germans, to move toward the Liberals and their leader, Mr. Rutte, 43. For a time, it looked as if the Liberals might lead a government for the first time with a reasonable plurality.

But Mr. Cohen had a good final televised debate, and the race tightened again.

“The economy was by far the main issue we have had in the campaign,” said Maurice de Hond, a prominent Dutch pollster, who predicted a race too close to call between the Liberals and Labor.

Charlotte Brand, a political researcher at Radboud University in Nijmegen, said Mr. Wilders’s popularity was understated by the opinion polls because voters here, as in France, are less likely to admit to anti-immigrant prejudice.

“The campaign was only about the economy, but on the streets the election was also about immigration,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/wo...ef=global-home

[emupsMaispubs]

It's nice to see that the US is not the only Xenephobic racist people in the world.... :crosseyed:

[downtowndude]

I would not call the Dutch a Xenephobic racist people. I think the results of the election are more complicated than that.

I hope our Dutch members would comment here.

[tilmprarnerit]

I will have to ask, but I don't think my member is Dutch.




In all seriousness though, to simply label it as a limitation not of a particular country due to a large immigration, but a RELIGION is a little scary Fab.

I know the problem, when a country is TOO accepting of the things around it, it will eventually start allowing a bunch of people that are NOT accepting of those same things start to come into power in that country. So the very freedoms they have are the ones that steal them of their freedoms.

It is also odd that when a people or culture moves OUT of an area because they do not like what they are provided in their own country, yet they bring along a lot of their own culture with them when they do. So the very people who do not like the lack of freedoms/jobs/equality their own country does not provide, feel uncomfortable embracing the customs of the country they come to, and in effect make a watered down version of their own country in another rather than integrating into the mainstream....

How can you encourage enough dispersion so that immigration becomes the garlic in the pot, not a pot full of garlic.

[prmnwoks]

The anti-immigration Freedom Party, after its stunning gains, still has only 24 seats in a parliament of 150.

Will the center-right parties partner with it in a government? Up till now they haven't ...

[i32I7qyH]

The pro-business Dutch Liberal Party had 31 seats and the center-left Labor Party 30, with 98 percent of the votes counted. But the far-right Freedom Party led by Geert Wilders demanded a share of government after it came in third with 24 seats, more than doubling its representation in the 150-member Parliament.

You have to consider that this was a fringe party just a short while ago.

(and please note that despite it's name, the Dutch Liberal Party is center-right )

[TughEmotteTug]

I would not call the Dutch a Xenephobic racist people. I think the results of the election are more complicated than that.

I hope our Dutch members would comment here.

At the moment I'm quite a bit ashamed to be Dutch, so I might as well give it a try
(I'm not used to talk about politics in English, so I just hope everything is more or less understandable...)

The problem with the PVV (or Wilders as it is basically a one-man show) is that because of his extreme anti-Islam policy you're either with him, or you're totally against him, for most people there's absolutely nothing in between. That's also the hard part now during formation of a coalition, many voters and even high-ranking members of both VVD and CDA definitely don't want to have anything to do with the PVV. This was already an issue the weeks before the elections, everyone wanted to know if the other parties would consider working together with the PVV. The VVD and CDA where the only ones to keep all options open, which might have cost them some votes. I for myself, I did vote VVD, but I did for sure realise that with my vote I also might have helped Wilders into the government, which to me is about the worst nightmare I can imagine.

But also on the less controversial issues it will be though to form a coalition, since on many economical issues, the PVV is (or at least tries to appear) quite left-wing. On the other hand, for months the PVV said they had only one non-debatable issue (raising retirement age from 65 to 67 years), but only hours after the elections, before the formation of the coalition even started, they dropped that issue just to be part of the formation.

I think within the PVV-voters there are two main groups: the ones that vote for him for his anti-Islam policies, and the ones just sick of the traditional parties. The last government was widely considered the worst we ever had, both by media, the opposition and the people. And there's one thing Wilders is absolutely brilliant at: manipulating the public opinion by media. According to him basically all Muslims are fundamentalist terrorists, all immigrants are criminals, all other politicians are liars (well, that might be true, but he's not a bit better than the others...), and about the whole worldwide economical crisis was caused by the last Dutch government (yeah, right). Basically, we are country on the verge of a total collapse, at least that's what he wants us to believe. Everything was of course caused by left-wing politics (meaning everything less right-wing than the PVV). And of course, he is the Saviour of the ordinary, hard working Dutch people, personified as Henk & Ingrid, his equivalent to Joe the Plumber.

I live in Oss, a small city (about 70.000 people), however with a lot of industry and some of the largest logistics companies in Europe. Although the city has a bad name (people from Oss are known as "messentrekkers", knife fighters, because of some brutal violence at the end of the 19th century), the actual crime rates are pretty low. Only about 10% of the population consists of Muslims, hardly any Moroccans (which cause most of the problems in other cities), most of them are originally from Turkey and hardly cause any problems at all. And there's only one mosque, which actually doesn't even look like a mosque, since it's inside an old water tower. So not any reason at all for a strong anti-Islam policy one would think. Oss was the birthplace of the Socialist Party in the '70s (their founder even stole my nickname...), and has always been a socialist stronghold ever since. Sometimes they even got a majority, which is highly unusual in our elections with numerous parties. However, during these elections the the SP and PVV both got 19% of the votes, a huge shift to the right. And as such, here in Oss, despite the lack of Islam-related problems, the PVV scored even higher than the national average.

And it's the same thing all over the country. Sure, the PVV did well almost everywhere. But in the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht, which both supposedly have huge problems with (mostly Moroccan) immigrants, the PVV only got 9 and 10%, way below the national average. They got huge amounts of votes in small communities that hardly have any Muslims or immigrants at all. For example, in Volendam, a small fishing village with only a handful of immigrants, they got one-third of the votes. This makes me feel their support is more based on fear than on actual problems.

Sure, the PVV has more than just anti-Islam issues, but for those are several alternatives, most notably the before mentioned Socialist Party. Both promised lower taxes for the ordinary man, more safety, better health care, the usual populist stuff. Apart from the anti-Islam issues, there's hardly any reason to pick the PVV above the other parties. And if you read through the populist BS, many of his policies are definetely not in favor of Henk & Ingrid.

So what did PVV-voters actually vote for? Just some of the more controversial or just plain weird things the PVV wants, directly from their program:
(which, in compliance with their cultural policy, is only available in Dutch)

Safety

• harsher prison sentences for all sorts of crimes, no more alternative sentences, no more involuntary commitment, no more parole for good behavior.
• police officers get the right to search anyone, anytime, even without any specific suspicion (Tarantino might have to rewrite a bit of Pulp Fiction...).
• registration of ethnicity of anyone (not just criminals), including people from the Dutch Antilles (hasn't there been some Austrian guy who did the same thing in Germany some 75 years ago?)
  
• withdrawing Dutch nationality of criminals with dual passports (Moroccans, even when born abroad, can't turn in their Moroccan nationality, so all of them have dual nationalities. Most of the problems are with minors. So basically, Wilders wants to send Dutch-born and raised kids back "home")
• Lowering the age of legal majority from 18 to 16.

Immigration

• First and foremost: Closing the borders for ALL immigrants from Islamic countries.
• Islam is a political ideology so it can't have the privileges religions have.
• No more mosques, closure of all Islamic schools
• a total ban on head scarfs in all public/government buildings and any organization subsidized by the government.
• Total ban on the burqa, a tax on head scarfs (called "kopvoddentaks", literally head rag tax)
• closing the Commissie Gelijke Behandeling (Equal Treatment Commission, a government organization against any form of discrimination)
• If Turkey enters the EU, we leave.
• Total ban on dual nationality.
• A maximum of 1.000 foreign refugees per year.
• Our own immigration policy, no longer following the EU. This also means closing the borders for eastern European workers (so basically get rid of the Schengen Agreement).
  
• Immigrants can get Dutch nationality (and access to social security) only after 10 years of work, without any criminal records.

Politics:

• Less government: parliament from 150 to 100 seats, no senate, no longer any political role for the queen.
• Less Europe, including getting rid of the European Parliament.
• No political or other important official functions for people with dual nationality.

Culture:

• New first item in the constitution: the Jewish-Christian and humanist roots of the Netherlands must remain the dominant culture.
• Only one language in the government (word and print) and schools: Dutch (well, maybe Frisian. But no English or any immigrant language)
• Public television (or as Wilders calls it, "State Television") back from three to one channel, no more multi-cultural "propaganda".
• No more subsidies for art.
  

Business:

• No longer any smoking ban in bars and restaurants.
• No European regulations for farmers and fishery.

Foreign policy:

• Fight against Islam must be the core of our foreign policy.
• United Nations is dominated by the OIC, so should be mostly ignored.
• No more development aid, only emergency aid.
• Support countries at war with the Islam, or under a Jihad, like Denmark and Switzerland.
• An international tribunal against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because of inciting to commit genocide and the destruction of Israel.
• stop all subsidies to anti-Israel industies, like ICCO and OxfamNovib.
• since 1946 there's an independent Palestinian state, so the Dutch government should call "Jordan" now "Palestina"

Better environment:

• separate "environmental policy" and "climate policy". We can influence the environment, but we can't change the climate.
• No "climate policy"
  
• more nuclear power plants
• no more climate-related subsidies
• The newest type of coal-powered power plants are clean, economical and reliable.

Transportation:

• more roads, more lanes
• Safe and reliable public transportation (but not a word about the funding...)
• Safe taxi's with polite drivers
  
• Stimulate growth of Schiphol (our only main airport) by lowering regulations for pollution and noise.
• No CO2-related taxes.

Animal rights:

• Emergency telephone number for animals
• Animal rights should be part of the constitution
• Ban on ritual slaughter

Of course this is just a small part of it, the rest of it (60 pages) is mostly populist BS. And this is what they call "the agenda of hope and optimism"

[avitalporatova]

Uh.... wow.

[jhkjurter]

Seems like I made a small mistake:

On the other hand, for months the PVV said they had only one non-debatable issue (raising retirement age from 65 to 67 years), but only hours after the elections, before the formation of the coalition even started, they dropped that issue just to be part of the formation.

Of course (as they are a populist party), the PVV was against raising the retirement age, it should remain at 65 years at all cost. Well, at least until 11 hours after the elections...

It's like Obama would have dropped his health care plans the day after the elections...

[VeniHemealm]

Animal rights:

Emergency telephone number for animals Does the PVV give the critters their very own phone, too?

[rJohutozsfds]

Why not? Everyone living creature has the right to have a cellphone, don't they? But of course, to protect our Dutch culture, the person on the other end of the line will only speak Dutch. Those dumb animals will have to adapt, otherwise they are pretty much doomed...

It's probably not what they meant, but it actually is the literal translation. The PVV, always good for a laugh...

[Antelpebabe]

What's that Lassie? Beyndijn's caught down the well?

[Bxbhtjnr]

From YouTube, Gert Wilders speaks (September 2009) ...

Geert Wilders Warning to America Part 1 of 2

Geert Wilders Warning to America Part 2 of 2

[VrQsgM7c]

Consider Germany and the Church of Scientology:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_in_Germany

[9uWzBx4l]

From YouTube, Gert Wilders speaks (September 2009) ...

Geert Wilders Warning to America Part 1 of 2

Geert Wilders Warning to America Part 2 of 2

Gert Wilders makes sense to me.

Why is there any doubt about Islam's intent? Read the Koran (I have).

His most telling claim: there may be moderate Muslims, but Islam is not moderate.

So could we say: we should encourage the bad Muslims --the ones who are moderate?

They have to be a minority in the Muslim faith. What religion encourages its apostates?

What hope is there in this ueber-liberal approach?

Will its elaborate Western goodwill be reciprocated? What do you think?



This man will be killed.

[Reocourgigiot]

^ Interesting you mention that quote: "there may be moderate Muslims, but Islam is not moderate."

I also took notice of it.

[Enfonebew]

Sure, he might have a point there, although you can question if there's anything like a moderate religion at all. There are some quite 'nice' parts in the bible too. It's all about interpretation.

Thing is: what does it solve? It's clear that for the PVV, any Muslim is a second-rate individual and will be treated that way. To me that seems the perfect way to stimulate fundamentalism rather than prevent it. And of course, a couple of idiots will prove the PVV was right. So let's turn our country into a second Israel...

[cristmiff]

If in the second clip if you take away the scary background music and actually listen to his proposals, some of them are not so far fetched. He needs to reword things and work on his delivery. The platinum dye-job does not help matters either.

[Allorneadesee]

Also resonant: "All cultures are not equal."

Who wants to step up to the plate and explain how Nazism and Stalinism --both cultures-- are equal to what we have, however poor that may be?

[sbgctsa]

If in the second clip if you take away the scary background music and actually listen to his proposals, some of them are not so far fetched. He needs to reword things and work on his delivery. The platinum dye-job does not help matters either.

Sure, he might have some good points. Problem is he exaggerates everything into extremes. Have you seen his "movie", Fitna? Apart from incomplete quotes, a picture of a rapper disguised as Theo van Gogh's murderer instead of the actual person and some complete nonsense (a lot of the things he shows are all about culture, not religion, and as such not mentioned in the Koran), in the second half of it he shows "The Netherlands" as it according to him is today. Mosques at every streetcorner, women in burqa everywhere, Arab signs all over the place. Fact is, I've never seen any woman in burqa here, not in my own town, not in the big cities (and I in fact do believe it should remain like that, a ban on burqa's is fine to me, a ban on head scarfs however is a different thing). And in most Dutch cities, you'll have a tough time to find a mosque at all (450 in total, on average about one per municipality, against many thousands of churches).

If there are problems in certain areas (which for sure exist), politicians should address those problems. Wilders however is showing a colossal problem that simply doesn't exist. What's smart: go against the small number of people actually creating any problems, or presenting 4% of the country (all of the Muslims) as the problem?

Also resonant: "All cultures are not equal."

Who wants to step up to the plate and explain how Nazism and Stalinism --both cultures-- are equal to what we have, however poor that may be?

Not all cultures are equal, but who's to judge? Fact is, those cultures do exist, so you have to deal with it. I just don't think the frontal assault isn't the most constructive way to solve any problem.

Culture will definitely be influenced by religion, but isn't defined by it. For example, the cruel habit of stoning people might be part of Arab culture, but as you should know, isn't part of the Koran. Millions of Muslims fit in perfectly in a Western culture. And of course they''ll add some of their own culture. As long as this doesn't conflict with our Western culture, what's the problem? Just keep out the parts that do conflict, the fundamentalists. Sure, this all sounds easier than it actually is, I do realize. But otherwise our culture is not any bit better than theirs.