GEERT WILDERS, a far-right Dutch politician who wants to shut down the country’s mosques and withdraw from the European Union, is doing well in the race for the country’s general elections in March. Depending on which poll you consult, he and his Party for Freedom (PVV) are either in first or second place. On October 14th, a court in The Hague did the PVV’s campaign prospects a favour. It allowed the country’s public prosecutors to go ahead with trying Mr Wilders for incitement to hatred, based on a speech he delivered in 2014 calling for “fewer Moroccans” in the country. The trial is scheduled to start on October 31st, and if past precedent is any guide, it will lead to a boost in the PVV’s popularity.
Mr Wilders has been pushing the boundaries of the Netherlands’ tolerance for racially provocative speech since 2004, when he left the centre-right Liberal party (VVD) to launch his career as a radical populist. He was an early adopter of the familiar talking-points of European Islamophobia, warning of a coming tsunami...Continue reading
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