Posted on 05/01/2002 2:35:36 PM PDT by knighthawk
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — For the Dutch, it's an election like no other. The dispassionate politicians who have led them for decades are facing an unfamiliar, bare-knuckle fight that is forcing the nation to confront long-hidden demons.
The campaign for the May 15 parliamentary elections has been energized by a flamboyant, shaven-headed former academic and columnist, a man who leads an openly gay lifestyle, supports personal liberties, and has laid claim to leadership of Holland's perennially vacant political right.
Pim Fortuyn has dictated debate with verbal attacks on the country's growing Muslim population and with an indictment of the shortcomings of what many other Europeans see as one of the most successful countries on the continent.
Fortuyn (pronounced fore-TOWN) has opened a closet door, revealing an array of skeletons: latent racism, poor public services, abysmal work ethics, corrupt business practices.
``The most important effect of the Fortuyn phenomenon is that many things have been pushed out into the open and made explicit. What was politically incorrect two years ago is now open for discussion,'' said Peter Groot, an associate professor of linguistics at Utrecht University.
Fortuyn's rise mirrors a right-wing resurgence in several European countries, lately highlighted by the anti-immigrant Jean Marie Le Pen's surprise showing in the first round of French presidential elections.
Yet it seems out of place in the Netherlands, which has a reputation for liberalism. It was the first country to legalize gay marriages, regulate prostitution, approve and control euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana in hundreds of ``coffee shops.''
Though tolerant of such subcultures, Fortuyn's popularity has exposed a deep vein of suspicion of immigrants in Europe's most densely populated country, about 2 million of whose 16 million people are not native Dutch. About 800,000 are Muslims.
At 54, Fortuyn is one of Holland's oldest front-line politicians and its most colorful. He's a brash contrast in a political culture that has long been bland and stuffy.
By tradition, policy decisions have come from consensus born out of committees, countless studies by government institutes and quiet debate in the back rooms of parliament.
There's nothing quiet about the confrontational Fortuyn.
In TV and newspaper interviews, he slammed the three-party coalition of Prime Minister Wim Kok for allowing public services to decline while the economy grew an average 3 percent annually for five straight years. Price-fixing scandals in government construction projects have underscored a common feeling that something is amiss.
On April 16, Kok's Cabinet resigned over an exhaustive study that partly blamed the government for failing to prevent the murder of 7,500 Muslim men and boys in the Dutch-patrolled U.N. enclave of Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995.
Fortuyn appeared on national television within an hour of the resignation to accuse the Cabinet of ``walking away from responsibilities'' by avoiding a parliamentary debate on the Srebrenica killings, which have nagged the national conscience for seven years.
But it's his scathing campaign against immigrants that has won him the most converts.
``The Netherlands is not an immigration country. The annual stream of tens of thousands of newcomers, who largely end up as illegal aliens, must stop,'' Fortuyn says.
He calls Islam anti-secular and backward, and blames Muslim immigrants for rising crime. ``Islam separates people. They see us as inferior. Moroccan boys never steal from a Moroccan, did you ever notice that?'' he said to the newspaper De Volkskrant earlier this year.
At first, Fortuyn was dismissed as appealing only to the bigoted fringe. Then he stunned the nation March 6 when his makeshift 6-week-old party won 35 percent of the vote for city council seats in Rotterdam, nearly half of whose residents come from immigrant backgrounds.
After his landslide, TV debates suddenly became less civil.
``When you are criticized on your vulnerable points, you make theater and you don't deal with the issues. That's your weakness,'' Green party leader Paul Rosenmoller said to Fortuyn.
Polls suggest Fortuyn's popularity may have peaked. NIPO, a reputable Dutch polling firm, at one point projected 29 seats for Fortuyn's party in the 150-member parliament, but its April 18 sounding lowered it to 24.
It hardly matters. Fortuyn has not only changed the flavor of politics, he has bared the Dutch soul.
``Our tolerance is being put to the test, and it has not come out very well,'' said Rita Schriemer of the Rotterdam Anti-Discrimination Action Committee.
``There has always been an undercurrent of racism,'' said Han van der Horst, a social historian. ``If Muslims wanted to build a mosque, the neighbors would complain about a parking problem. That would never happen if they wanted to build a church.''
Immigrants say discrimination is rampant. Complaints to anti-defamation bureaus nationwide rose last year by 11 percent — nearly double the increase of the previous year.
Schriemer, who compiled the figures, sees a shift in the political environment. ``Tolerance toward Muslims is wearing thin,'' she said.
Immigrants are widely blamed for rising crime rates and hard drug use, but police refuse to release ethnic data to prevent stigmatizing any community.
Fortuyn advocates abandoning the treaty that eased cross-border movement among many European countries. ``The Netherlands is full,'' he says. He also wants to weaken the constitutional guarantee against discrimination.
He would slash generous disability and illness benefits, which some blame for hobbling an economy where close to 20 percent of the work force is on short- or long-term sick leave. And he would freeze spending on health and education, arguing there is plenty of bureaucratic waste that can be cut.
Although it has not suffered the same severe economic downturn as other European countries, the Dutch inflation last year was Europe's highest at 5.1 percent, and there's a constant murmur of discontent over long waiting lines for medical care, overcrowded schools and persistent problems with the trains.
``My mother has Alzheimer's,'' said van der Horst, the historian. ``It took me two years to get her into a home — and all the while sitting in late trains.''
The criminal immigrants must be send back. Also refugees who are caught lying or throw away their passport (to prevent identification) must be send back. This never happens.
The governmant also needs to ensure they are really integrated into society, not like the way it happened for decades now.
As for more Dutch babys: LOL!
Like many of our politricksters would! That's why they try to keep us focused on 'social security'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.