Anti-Islam Dutch MP Gains support?

[Die Rote Fahne]

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What's up with this fascist's party gaining votes?

This nationalist fuck wants to ban Islamic immigrants.

[Das war einmal]

Thats because a lot of Dutch people are afraid of what they think is a growing influence of Islam combined with the petty crime of people of especially Moroccan descendants. Add the fears and anger of the capitalist crisis and voila

[Red Commissar]

Yeah, they're playing to all the populistic demands. They see there is anger towards the economic situation, but also using the negative perception of the immigrant communities by the populace.

This is why while you have left-wing parties gaining seats in the recent local elections because of the PvDA's third way nonsense, they are unable to match what the PVV was able to do (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8548847.stm). On my few trips to Europe and from what I see from some of their behaviors elsewhere, the notion of the continent being "islamified" is very wide-spread and they feel that their politicians are doing nothing to address it.

[Wanted Man]

There are some errors in the video. The reporter claims that the government's collapse opened up political space for the PVV. This is plain wrong, because the PVV has been a factor for at least 4 years now. It's just that thanks to the fall of the government, they will record a massive victory a year earlier than expected. There is also an interview with a woman labelled as a "Freedom Party supporter", but the party that she refers to is the "Party for Freedom and Democracy", i.e. the liberal/conservative VVD. I realise politics of some countries is difficult, but this is just poor reporting.

During the recent local elections (yesterday), the PvdA (labour party) and SP (Socialist Party) lost heavily, while two left-liberal parties made gains at their expense. These two are GroenLinks (Green Left, basically green liberals) and D66 (Democrats, basically left-liberals). The right-wing VVD also made gains. The CDA (Christian-Democrats) who were the senior partner of the recently disintegrated government also lost, but not as heavily (they lost more seats than the SP, but they also had a lot more to begin with).

Geert Wilders' party, the PVV, deliberately only participated in two municipalities, namely in the cities of Almere and The Hague. The reason for this is that large percentages were assured in these cities, and to keep tight control on who is allowed to represent them. Similar parties in the past did not have controls like this, and often ended up with outright fascists on their lists. In Almere, the PVV entered the council as the biggest party in one go, in The Hague they made substantial gains, but the PvdA remained the largest. Not particularly good news, but not unexpected either.

The most interesting thing is that the local elections basically were about the PVV, even though they only participated in 2 municipalities. National themes dominated these elections more than ever. Due to the fall of the government, national elections will be in June, and then things will really get interesting.

Why is he gaining? Ouch, there's a big question that I can't fully answer within this post. First of all, a potential far-right electorate was already there since the death of Pim Fortuyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn). Of course, Fortuyn's party LPF did a horrible job in government after their leader's death; that government fell within 3 months due to in-fighting, and the LPF was virtually wiped out in the 2003 election, and practically ceased to exist. But the people who are prepared to vote for an anti-immigration, law-and-order platform have continued to exist.

The parliamentary left has not been able to provide a strong alternative. The PvdA became incredibly strong during the 2006 local election, but failed to maintain the momentum in the national election that same year. The SP did make strong gains, but ended up not entering government. The SP's charismatic leader retired, and the party suffered from internal and external struggles that were caused by the lack of internal democracy. The PvdA in government has continued to support neo-liberal policies, and the Green Left and D66 also basically support these. The SP are the only ones arguing against them, but they have their own problems, as mentioned above.

This means that there is a lack of an alternative, and there is no party consistently supporting solidarity (as opposed to either racism or social-democratic multi-culturalism) between "Dutch" and "foreigners". In short, that is why the PVV is attractive for many. I'll post about the PVV's ideology tomorrow.

[Wanted Man]

I'll make the promised post a bit later on, but here is a video of Wilders in the UK: http://www.rtl.nl/%28/actueel/rtlnieuws/binnenland/%29/components/actueel/rtlnieuws/2010/03_maart/05/binnenland/wilders-haalt-uit-naar-islam.xml

And an article from a British paper that sums things up: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/extreme-right-on-the-march-in-europes-most-tolerant-nation-1916481.html

An article about his visit, plus a video: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dutch-politicians-visit-sparks-westminster-anger-1916665.html