;)
Never a dull moment with my compatriot Geert Wilders!
At the June 9 national elections in Holland, he got 15% of the vote, 24 mandates out of 150 in Parliament, and hoped to be unavoidable at the formation of a right-wing Government with the winning conservative Liberal Party VVD (31/150) and the crushed Christien Democrats (CDA), who lost half of their following, scoring only 21/150.
Arithmetically, a VVD-PVV-CDA coalition (31+24+21= 76 out of 150) would have been possible. As much so, as the fundamentalist Christian SGP party (2 mandates, forbids women to take office on biblical grounds) offered its support.
But an intervention of the Queen and her advisers helped the young new VVD leader Mark Rutte, to have NOT to negotiate about the loony Wilders Government programme. The final blow came from the new CDA leader Maxime Verhagen, acting Foreign Minister, in a parliamentary debate, when he rejected any compromise on the program of Wilders' PVV, as it puts forward proposals that undermine the Rule Of Law and the democratic State.
It was very late in the process, but just in time, we thought. But, once again, I have been too optimistic. Or, if you like, not pessimistic enough. Within two weeks, the christian democrat leader made a 180° turn and accepted negotiations with Wilders on a Government coalition. The conservative VVD seems very willing to buy Wilders' support for an extreme-right Government at the cost of some fundamental democratic principles.
Social-Democrat leader Job Cohen, who got a honorable result of 30 mandates, falling short by only by 1 mandate to become the winner of the elections, had already stated, that he considered Wilders as "danger to the rule of law". He thus altered the policy of his predecessor Wouter Bos, who tried in vain, to make the Social-Democrats adopt a program that copied a large share of the xenophobe Wilders ideas and who tried to introduce Eurosceptics in his party on top of that. I am proud, of having been part of the congress majority that defeated those ideas, in 2008.
The unacceptable Wilders program points, resumed in the PVV election program, are (some of them):
- Reorientation of the Dutch foreign policy, in order to make the "struggle against Islam" its core business,
- introduction of a tax on wearing the hijjab (or even a simple headscarf), by Muslim women,
- Europe: Exclusion of EU member states Romania and Bulgaria, stop on negotiations with Turkey, reduction of the EU into a free-market arrangement,
- "ethnic registration" of all Dutch citizens,
- introducing a discrimination between Dutch inhabitants with "judeo-christian roots" and those who have them not (or their parents) by way of a constitutional amendment,
- transforming the 2nd world war commemorations into an anti-socialist manifestation.
Out of these points, not surprisingly, Verhagen mentioned the foreign policy, the headscarf tax and the ethnic registration as not-negotiable issues. As Wilders stuck to those issues and would not negotiate first with Rutte and afterwards with the CDA, he blocked himself, intentionally or not, from negotiations about a coalition Government.
But everything changed completely, when PvdA and VVD could not arrive at a compromise on spending cuts, as the VVD insisted that 18 billions of € yearly were a minimum and that no heavier taxes were acceptable on wealthy house-owners and other possible contributors to the indebted state.
Cohen expected, that a negotiation in view of a rightist government would fall through, and that the VVD would have to come back to him, without the menace of an alternative of a Government with Wilders. CDA-leader Maxime Verhagen, however, accepted a formula for a coalition government, including his party and the VVD, with "tolerating" support of Wilders. That means, that Wilders will have no Ministers in that Government, but engages himself to support it on issues that will have been arranged in a coalition contract of which he is a participant. In exchange, as a press commuiniqué issued by the three party leaders says, for concessions from the other two partners on civil rights for Muslims and more police repression in urban neighbourhoods.
In between, Wilders is pushing the buttons in order to avoid as much as possible to be associated with the draconian spend-cut programme, the VVD and the CDA are concocting. That programme runs against every possible promise Wilders made to his followers. Wilders promised old-age retirement at 65 years to stay, but abandoned it only three hours after the elections of June 9. Care for elder people will be cut. Medical insurance will be more expensive. Renting an appartment will cost more, while fiscal help to rich people who own houses, will remain unchanged. - All those issues are potential bombs under the fragile followership of Wilders' "party" organization.
That is why he seeks diversion from those nasty issues. After his original rebuttal in June, Wilders associated himself with a loony ex-CDU representative in Berlin, Germany, announcing that he would go and speech in Berlin on October 2nd. The US-supported German Hate-Blog PI is the main organizer of the event. I personally, was rebutted by PI when I asked to get a seat in the 10/2 audience. The reasoning was about as follows: You are a social-democrat, which means a Socialist. Even if you come from an anti-Nazi and jewish family, you are a child of Hitler, who was a national-Socialist. We, PI, we are the REAL resistance against fascism, and you, Huib Riethof from Holland, you are a shame to your family and to every anti-Nazi, like us (Politically Incorrect).
I am still outraged at the outlandish attitude of those German escapitsts from the "Kollektivschuld", but, thank you, I am recovering. And I see, how this works. Wilders, intentionally or unintentionally, is providing a cover to the German extreme right, constructing the surrealist idea, that the Nazis were in fact duped by the Muslims in their antisemitism. The eternal Jerusalem Mufti is witness. For PI, anti-Muslim is Anti-Nazi. So, when you do not share their anti-Muslim fataticism, you must be a Nazi-friend.
Good luck, Mr. Wilders, we said, when you associate with loons like that.
But, as the Dutch are not very interested in what happens outside their national borders and as it it is Summer, the ridiculous "Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance" (GWIFA) became a virtual fact.
Now, as Wilders has seriously to compromise over the back of his voters with the most conservative and thatcherite Right, another move imposed itself: The Ground Zero "Mosque" in New York City!
VVD and CDA were painfully confronted with a prisoners' dilemma: Wilders was going to harm Dutch trade, economy and moral standing in the world. But they could or would not afford themselves a discussion over W's "freedom of (hate-)speech". A lame comment followed: "Wilders should consider his responsabilities"...
If this is the format for future governance in Holland, then we are really in for an all-time low. Dutch Government will be a hostage of a "party" (in reality an agency) that is bound hands and feet to Israeli outer right wing politicians and their US associates. Sabotage of EU projects and racist provocations all over Europe are to be expected. For some time, Wilders will be able to mislead many people.
I believe, the best solution to the problem would be a grassroots movement in Holland itself, that explains every day in public, what Wilders is really doing and provides an alternative way to do away with ethnic tensions and security issues. The existing parties have lamentably failed to address the issue in Parliament and in the media. A fresh grassroots movement will help them to return to their duties.
Where is the funding that such a new "Orange Revolution" would need so badly?