Plenty of Wilders in new Dutch government
Searchlight - November 2010
After more than hundred days of intense talks, a new right-wing coalition government has finally emerged in The Netherlands which has not had a functioning government since February.
The period since June's elections has been an unprecedented one in Dutch political history in which the shape of the next government dominated the news and the public could follow step-by-step the struggle within the ranks of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) over the issue of cooperation with Geert Wilders' Islamphobic Freedom Party (PVV) which has 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
In exchange for the PVV's backing, there will be stricter immigration controls, a ban on burqas, and conditional passports for new immigrants. This situation has met criticism from many leading figures in the Dutch political mainstream. For example, almost all former CDA prime ministers, including the oldest living CDA statesman, Piet de Jong, 85, have spoken out against the deal hacked out with Wilders.
The intensity of the coalition talks did not hinder Wilders from travelling to New York on 11 September to work on his international anti-Islam coalition by establishing a new network, the International Freedom Alliance (IFA). Together with allies from the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, he plans to launch the network at the end of the year.
Wilders seemingly hopes to position his alliance in the political space between traditional conservative parties and the far right. He was invited by Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA) which is led by the loony anti-Islam and anti-Obama blogger Pamela Geller, who also supports the racist thugs of the English Defence League.
His speech, however, had been long awaited by commentators in the Netherlands who thought it could jeopardize the PVV's chances of becoming part of a coalition. In the speech, Wilders raved about the 'Sharia' mosque, the triumphalism of Muslims that would result if it was built and falsely claimed that two-thirds of Dutch Muslims agreed with the terror attacks. Dutch commentators concluded that Wilders had toned down his radicalism because of his desire for power at home in the Netherlands.
In mid-September, it was revealed that Wilders' new adviser is the Belgian 'intellectual' Paul Belien. An extreme Flemish nationalist and conservative Catholic, Belien is married to right-wing extremist Vlaams Belang (VB) parliamentarian Alexandra Colen.
Wilders has always kept some distance from the VB hardcore led by Philip Dewinter and it is believed that Belien, who is also board member of the International Free Press Society (IFPS), has smoothed the path to links with some elements in the VB.
As regards the coalition's final packet measures, in addition to tighter curbs on immigration and the rules on family reunion, asylum regulations will be drastically toughened. All these measures are part of the support agreement with the Freedom Party.
Jeroen Bosch for Alert! and Antifa-Net in Amsterdam
