How concerned should we be that Geert Wilders's cleverly named Party for Freedom (PVV) made strong showings in Dutch local elections last week, actually becoming the largest party in the city of Almere?
The socialists say he and his far Right, anti-Islam, anti-immigrant party are a threat to society. There is real concern that the PVV will now become the majority party in government after the June general election caused by the recent collapse of the coalition.
I visited Almere last week* and spoke to a large number of people, including Ayse Bayrak de Jager, the woman seen in my photo with her little protest banner outside the Stadhuis, or city hall. The message read: "My headscarf, my freedom."
Another woman I met, who had a Russian name but was nevertheless the sort of person Wilders would regard as truly Dutch, said she might leave town rather than live in a place controlled by such people. She also vowed to wear the burqa the day any Wilders administration, local or national, imposed its promised ban.
In fact, the hardest part of my mission to report on the outcome of the elections was finding anyone willing to admit having voted for the PVV. One student said his parents had done so, but not him. A PE teacher said he had not ruled out voting for Wilders in the general election. And finally, after a string of random approaches, I came across Cor Veerhuis, who freely acknowledged that he had cast his vote for the PVV to give them a "chance".
Cor was my taxi driver - journalists frequently pick the brains of such people, and it is not necessarily a lazy option - on a little run around the city (not so little that it didn't cost close on €50). We looked in vain for a house displaying a PVV poster. Since so many people in Almere demonstrably did vote PVV, maybe there really is the sense of shame a couple of other citizens mentioned.
I have read some of the translated speeches and comments of Wilders and you do not need to support an open door policy on immigration to conclude that it does not make for pleasant reading.
But the point is that in the Netherlands of today, it seems highly unlikely that any one party will gain an outright victory in the polls. I cannot see any other party agreeing top share power with the PVV in Almere and cannot see it happening at The Hague either. Decent Dutch folk can probably sleep easily in their beds for now.
* My piece in The National can be found at this link.
How worried
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