Huge Gains For Dutch Far Right

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 3-8-2002 | Andrew Osborne

[blam]

Huge gains for Dutch far right

Andrew Osborn
Friday March 8, 2002
The Guardian

The Dutch government was under pressure last night after a new far-right movement committed to slashing immigration made widespread gains in local elections and became the biggest political force in Rotterdam, the Netherlands' second city.
The spectacular gains by the charismatic but openly racist politician Pim Fortuyn and a loose coalition of parties centred on the anti-immigration Leefbaar Nederland (Liveable Netherlands) movement come two months before national elections and threaten to shatter the country's image as an ultra-tolerant society.

Mr Fortuyn favours zero Muslim immigration, wants to cut the annual number of immigrants accepted to 10,000 from 40,000, and has campaigned for a key anti- discrimination clause to be removed from the constitution.

In Rotterdam, where almost half of the 600,000 population are of non-Dutch extraction, Mr Fortuyn captured 17 of the city council's 45 seats, putting an end to the ruling Labour party's post-war dominance. With 34.7% of the votes, Leefbaar Nederland is now the city's largest party.

Bram Peper, the ousted mayor of Rotterdam, said: "I don't know what's going on, but something is terribly wrong in Rotterdam." (Idiot!)

[blam]

Enough is enough, huh?

[knarf]

Hey knighthawk .... over here.

[Jen]

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[Big Bunyip]

Watch the smear campaign begin.

[knarf]

Psssst ... check it out.

[jackbill]

Bram Peper, the ousted mayor of Rotterdam, said: "I don't know what's going on, but something is terribly wrong in Rotterdam."

Don't you just love it when idiots proclaim their idiocy?

[Dialup Llama]

>Watch the smear campaign begin.

From what I've read about Fortyn, no smear campaign against him would have an effect.

[Dialup Llama]

Without getting specific, this IS the DUTCH far right. So don't expect Pat Buchanan here.

[Chi-townChief]

And he at least could have took advantage of the natural alliteration and said "rotten in Rotterdam."

[Antoninus]

I know several Dutch folks. One is a guy in his late 50's and he's so PC, it's almost comical. However, after he's had a few beers (and it's not long into the day with him!), you can often get him going about how the Netherlands is being overrun by foreigners and soon the country will lose its national identity.

I don't cry for these petty European socialist countries. They made their beds. Too bad they've got 12 guys named Ali sleeping in them now...

[Ronin]

Remember what they did to Austria when they had the nerve to elect a "far-right" government a while back.

It will be interesting to observe Euro-weenie reaction to this in the post Sept. 11 environment.

[GuillermoX]

Watch for diplomatic sanctions, like we saw when Austrians dared vote for Haider.

[GuillermoX]

Talk about sour grapes.

And, how dare a European politician want to keep his country European. Imagine a politician in the USA who would take a "anti moslem" immigration stance. He would be crucified.

[mikeIII]

There are also reports that Le Penn, the far-out right winger of France, making gains. We'll see this trend sweeping across Europe. But here, where the attacks occurred, we're still all about being PC and have our law-makers demanding the release of detained illegal Middle-Easterners!

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[Red Jones]

wow, I think that's too bad about holland being over-run by non dutch. I feel the same way about germany & england. The people in all 3 countries got hoodwinked by the elites, just like in america they've done so much to us. I don't see what was racist about the people in holland for wanting their nation for themselves. I wonder if zimbabwe or saudi arabia allow immigrants to come and live equally as citizens. In zimbabwe they kill white people whose families have lived there for a hundred years. In Saudi they don't permit anyone to worship freely. But the Europeans are the racists.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

From what I've read about Fortyn, no smear campaign against him would have an effect.

At least you know something about him, which is more than most of us. Characterizations by left wing journalists about 'far-right' European parties mean almost nothing today. The Christian Democrats, who have governed Germany most of the time since WWII named their candidate a month or two ago, and he was also called 'far-right'. All we know about this guy based on this article is that he wants to restrict immighration. We know nothing about his other positions, or whether he used racist terminology.

[quebecois]

"Huge gains for Dutch far right"

I'm not sure whether the West will wake up, but if it doesn't, then the writing is on the wall. Rotterdam is half non-Dutch? Geesh. Why did they fight to save their country from the Germans, just to turn it over to the Arabs?

How on earth can a people be led to a philosophical belief that their own continued existence in their own land is evil?

By what contorted world-view is someone who wants to preserve their ancient heritage considered "far out on the political spectrum", while those who want to flood their nation with foreign, relgious fanantics and criminals considered "mainstream" and "moral"?

[Lizavetta]

So restricting immigration is far-right, but "ultra tolerance" is not far-left? When are the Dutch, and other liberals, going to realize that ultra tolerance means, in practical terms, that nothing is wrong? How utterly brain-dead can you be to embrace that as a nation?

[Jumper]

Greetings from The Netherlands! Yes, its true. I'm an American working here in South Limburg area and it was a shocking upset. This party went from no candidates in office to 18 voted in and is now the majority party which is more important than just "putting an end to the ruling Labour party's post-war dominance". My Dutch coworkers are becoming very conservative.... I've been here nearly three years and Austria's Haider was hit with sanctions I pointed out to them that these political and economic sanctions consitituted a double standard but that was Okay by them even in as much as they recongnized it was wrong - just necessary.

Now my Dutch friends are excited! They view this guy as being one of the first to speak out with the truth - they are just wondering if he is all mouth and no substance....

Yep, I'm beginning to beleive that humans cycle in generational pulls, and every 3-4 generations there are swings in the political arena in which it goes back and forth between conservative and liberal - looks as if the Dutch have had 'nuff of the the Elite European Liberalizm for now.