Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 13 March 2017

Anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker fans flames from security bubble

MIKE CORDER the popular vote he is con-
Associated Press sidered unlikely to be able
THE HAGUE, Netherlands to form a ruling coalition in
(AP) — With his flamboy- a nation where no single
ant shock of blonde- party has ever ruled alone.
dyed hair and fiery anti- Crucially, Prime Minister
Islam rhetoric, Dutch politi- Rutte has ruled out working
cian Geert Wilders comes together after the election.
across a man who doesn’t Polls show Rutte’s center-
mind the limelight. right People’s Party for
Yet for the past dozen Freedom and Democracy
years, the right-wing popu- with the most voter support
list has spent much of his in the days leading up to
time holed up in anony- Wednesday’s election.
mous safe houses or in a Rutte rejects Wilders’ po-
heavily guarded wing of larizing rhetoric, but also
Parliament. harbors hard feelings over
Tight security surrounds Wilders’ decision to effec-
Wilders night and day, and tively torpedo Rutte’s first
he hardly ventures out- minority government in
doors. For his handful of 2012.
campaign events ahead After weeks of negotiations
of a March 15 election, he on a tough austerity pack-
traveled in convoys of ar- age, Wilders, who pledged
mored cars. Firebrand anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders poses for a picture during a campaign stop in Breda, to prop up the govern-
“It’s a total lack of free- Netherlands, Wednesday, March 8, 2017. Associated Press ment by marshaling party

dom. That’s how I would also his penchant for com- lawmakers for key votes,
backed out, forcing fresh
say it,” Wilders, who leads municating via Twitter. elections.
the Party for Freedom in As protests and riots unfold- “We know they walk away
the Netherlands, told The ed this weekend in Rotter- when the going gets tough,
Associated Press in a re- dam over a Dutch govern- “that they make problems
cent interview. ment decision to block the bigger not smaller,” Rutte
The elaborate protection visits of two Turkish ministers, said of the Party for Free-
apparatus that surrounds Wilders fired off regular in- dom. Even so, Wilders’
him is a reaction to death cendiary tweets. message has found strong
threats from extremists en- “Go away and never support in a nation known
raged by his fierce criticism come back ... and take for its long history of reli-
of Islam. Wilders has made all your Turkish fans from gious tolerance and per-
headlines and drawn con- The Netherlands with you sonal freedoms.
demnation for more than please. #byebye,” he said Wilders’ opposition to Islam
a decade for his anti-Islam in one as Turkey’s family dates back to the days
rhetoric, which has includ- affairs minister was at the when he could still move
ed comparing the Quran center of a tense standoff freely around the world. In
with Adolf Hitler’s “Mein at the Turkish consulate. his youth he lived in Israel,
Kampf” and calling for a His one-page election which he saw as a demo-
tax on the veils some Mus- manifesto is light on eco- cratic oasis surrounded by
lim women wear. At the nomic policy and heavy on oppressive regimes in the
same time, support for his pledges to “de-Islamize” Middle East.
party has grown in fits and the Netherlands, a nation After working for a Dutch
starts, mirroring what he of 17 million where an es- government welfare orga-
calls a “Patriotic Spring” timated 5 percent of the nization, Wilders gravitated
sweeping Europe. Despite adult population is Muslim. into politics and joined the
slipping in the polls recent- Wilders calls Islam a threat party now led by Rutte.
ly, the Party for Freedom re- to western democracy and But he quit in 2004 over his
mains on track to become vows to close all mosques opposition bringing Turkey
one of the biggest parties and ban the Quran, if he into the European Union.
in the 150-seat lower house. wins power. Two years later, he formally
He also is regularly com- But he has alienated so established the PVV, the
pared to President Donald much of the political main- Dutch acronym for the Par-
Trump, for his policies and stream that even if he wins ty for Freedom.q