Living the legacy of Pim Fortuyn

The Dutch plans to forcibly remove tens of thousands of asylum seekers may sit ill at ease with Holland's long-standing reputation as a bastion of liberalism and laissez-faire attitudes.

But the expression "Normen en waarden" - norms and values - has become a catchphrase in the country, whose residents have in recent years expressed increasing unease with sharing their homeland with foreigners who they say do not subscribe to Dutch values.

The meteoric rise of the populist Pim Fortuyn - who campaigned on an anti-immigration, anti-Islam ticket prior to his assassination in 2002 - was widely interpreted as a wake-up call for Dutch politicians who had studiously avoided questions of immigration and integration.

The Netherlands was full, and those without permits should be deported, Mr Fortuyn declared.

His party achieved stunning election success after his death, and although in-fighting has since taken its toll, his politics - as Tuesday's vote makes clear - live on.

"It's probably fair to say that the Dutch have become less liberal," says Hans Wansing, a political commentator at the Dutch daily De Volkskrant.

"A lot of people feel we have been too tolerant over the years - hence the appeal of Pim Fortuyn when he started breaking taboos. The government is acting on that - what we are seeing is indeed his legacy."

The clampdown on asylum seekers is seen as inextricably linked to a wider debate about multi-culturalism in the Netherlands - a policy which has of late been called into question.

A recent Dutch all-party parliamentary report concluded that efforts to create an integrated multi-ethnic society has failed, leaving first and second-generation immigrants alienated from mainstream Dutch life.

To those who oppose the plans to expel the 26,000 failed asylum seekers - many of whom have lived in the country for years and have worked hard to integrate - the deportations will only exacerbate this problem.

The Council of Churches for example has warned of "major tension in local communities that have adopted immigrants, where their children go to school and where numerous volunteers are involved in settling them in". Other pressure groups note that families will be torn apart, young people sent back to a country they barely know.

But while opinion polls do suggest a number of Dutch believe the plan to be draconian, the majority are behind the plan.

"I think it's the only way to stop things getting out of hand. I'm with the government on this," says Roy, a software consultant in the north-eastern town of Zwolle.

"The Netherlands must always be a place where those who are genuinely fleeing persecution can come, but it should not be a place for people who want to abuse the system and who have no interest in accepting their responsibilities, learning the language, trying to fit in."

While the Netherlands may be about to embark upon one of the largest deportations in modern European history - the country is not alone in questioning the merits of multi-culturalism and ongoing immigration.

New measures have been adopted in the UK and Germany to repatriate those whose claims to asylum on the grounds of persecution are rejected. Italy and France say they will not repeat the periodic amnesties which have been granted in the past to illegal immigrants.

Mainstream parties across Europe have been jolted into action by the gains made by anti-immigrant, populist parties in a string of elections.

While these parties - as Pim Fortuyn's movement illustrated - are rarely able to maintain a prolonged period in government, if they enter office at all - their policies are frequently absorbed by ruling parties.

Many human rights activists argue that politicians should not kowtow to demands for a clampdown, but politicians retort that, in a democracy, there are voters to consider.

Something just strikes me as odd, labored, about this sentence. "Residents?" Aren't the ones expressing unease actually "Citizens?" And what about "...with sharing their homeland with foreigners..." Just strikes me as strange. Why not say "...with the mass immigration of foreigners..."

And what about that sneering little "who say they do not subscribe to Dutch values" bit. The "who say" part makes it sound like this view is just an opinion. But, in this case, it is the opinion of the citizens themselves, who's opinion, it seems to me, constitutes the last word on what it means to "subscribe to Dutch values."

What if the sentence read like this:

But the expression "Normen en waarden" - norms and values - is heard more and more frequently in the country, whose citizens have in recent years expressed increasing unease with mass immigration to their country by foreigners who do subscribe to Dutch values.

Naaah. Doesn't push The Agenda. Delete it, and fire whoever wrote it.

(steely)

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"Dutch filmmaker doing film on Pim Fortuyn"