All eyes on far-right Geert Wilders as Dutch go to the polls

[pampango]

Source: UK Guardian

The Dutch went to the polls today to elect local authorities in a ballot seen as a gauge of the national mood and the strength of the far right, 10 days after the government collapsed and three months before national elections. With almost 400 local authorities being elected, the focus was on only two, the votes in the capital The Hague and the central town of Almere, because of the campaign by the anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders to establish his Freedom party in local government for the first time.

Wilders, who likens the Qur'an to Hitler's Mein Kampf and wants Muslim immigrants deported, is bidding fair to win the general election in June, with the latest opinion polls giving him 27 of the 150 seats in The Netherlands' highly fragmented political scene.

Today the town halls in The Hague and Almere were under heavy security because of the tension fanned by the Freedom party campaign. In both towns and elsewhere scores of men and women turned up to vote wearing headscarves, in an ironic protest against Wilders's demand for a tax on Muslim headgear and for the wearing of headscarves to be banned in all public buildings.

Voter turnout in The Hague and Almere was several points up today on four years ago, suggesting the Freedom party could do well. In Almere, a new town in central Holland with a population of nearly 200,000 and hardly any immigrants, Wilders's party was being tipped to win. In The Hague the contest was more even, with Labour and liberals also expected to do well. In European elections last summer the Freedom party came second, trouncing Labour in its heartland cities of the western and northern coasts. A Wilders win in the Dutch capital would be a sensation. Polls predict he could triple his vote at the general election.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/03/geert-wilders-dutch-polls

[pampango]

1. Gains for far-right in Dutch elections

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9322c7a6-2715-11df-b84e-00144feabdc0.html

Early results from Dutch local elections on Wednesday night indicated that the far-right anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders was on course to make big gains in a closely watched vote ahead of a general election in June.

The PVV was only on ballot papers in The Hague and Almere, a northern town built on land reclaimed from the sea in the 1970s. With 50 per cent of the vote counted in The Hague, the PVV had won almost a fifth of ballots counted, second only to the Labour party. Early returns from Almere indicated the PVV would be the biggest single party there.

”This is an enormous breakthrough,” Sietse Fritsma, the leading PVV candidate in The Hague told cheering supporters in a café. ”This is going to drive established politics completely crazy ... Very many citizens of The Hague have chosen for safety, for lower taxes, for better elderly care and against Islamisation.”

Mr Wilders has called for an immediate stop to immigration from Muslim countries, the banning of mosque construction and a €1,000 a year tax on Muslim women who wear headscarves.

[Ken Burch]

2. Sickening.

You'd think the Dutch, of all people, would remember what happens when an "out group" is targeted.

Voting for Geert Wilders is the moral equivalent of ratting out the Frank family.

[pampango]

3. Dutch anti-Islam leader is major winner in polls

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6230AN20100304

Dutch anti-Islamist leader Geert Wilders scored major gains in local authority polls Thursday, making him a serious challenger for power in a June national election, preliminary results showed. The results came on top of an opinion poll showing that the PVV, which campaigns against Muslim immigration as its main platform, would win the most seats -- 27 in the 150-member Dutch parliament -- in the June 9 election.

That would make it tough for Balkenende's Christian Democrats, projected to win one seat less, to forge a strong coalition without Wilders. Months of talks between parties, and the resulting policy vacuum, could threaten a fragile economic recovery and cast doubt on the scope of planned budget cuts.

The PVV has been pitching its policies to a nation of 16 million that is turning increasingly inward as the economy struggles and social tensions rise. There are nearly 1 million Muslims in the Netherlands.

"The leftist elite still believes in multi-culturalism, coddling criminals, a European super-state and high taxes," Wilders told cheering supporters at a rally in Almere after polling ended Wednesday. "But the rest of the Netherlands thinks differently. That silent majority now has a voice," he said.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Ugh. Just ugh.

[Vidar]

5. Very sad.