நெதர்லாந்தில் முஸ்லீம் எதிர்ப்பு கட்சிக்கு ஆதரவு பெருகுகிறது. கீர்ட் வில்டர்ஸ் பிரதமரா?

Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders makes strong showing in local polls
Geert Wilders, the radical anti-Muslim Dutch politician, was celebrating a symbolic breakthrough on Thursday as his party won control of its first municipality in a show of strength ahead of June's general election.

Published: 11:29AM GMT 04 Mar 2010


Geert Wilders Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES Mr Wilders's far-Right Party for Freedom (PVV) made a strong showing in local polls held Wednesday, while the traditionally strong Christian Democratic (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) parties lost support, early results showed.

The PVV came first and second in the only two of 394 municipalities it contested.


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Controversial anti-Muslim MP banned from the UK because of public order fearsIt was the strongest party with 21.6 per cent of the vote in Almere, a city of 187,000 people near the capital Amsterdam previously won by the PvdA, and came second in the seat of government, The Hague - the Netherlands' third largest city with 442,000 residents.

"What is possible in The Hague and Almere is possible all over the country," said Mr Wilders, who is awaiting a hate speech trial for calling Islam a fascist religion and likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Mr Wilders was arrested and deported from Heathrow in February 2009 after the Home Office banned him on the grounds "that his presence in the UK could foster hatred and threaten community harmony in light of his anti-Muslim rhetoric".

This was the first municipal election for the PVV, with its mission of "fighting the Islamisation of the Netherlands".

The Netherlands' two biggest parties, the Christian Democratic Appeal and Labour Party, lost about two and six percentage points respectively with 93 per cent of the vote counted by Thursday morning, two weeks after their governing coalition collapsed at a national level.

The CDA of Jan Peter Balkenende, the outgoing prime minister, had dropped about two percentage points from 16.83 per cent in 2006.

The PvdA, the strongest party in the last round of municipal polls in 2006 with 23.45 per cent of the vote, now stood at about 16 per cent.

The CDA and PvdA had been in government nationally until January 20, when Wouter Bos, then finance minister and vice premier, withdrew his Labour party from the coalition in a spat over extending the Netherlands' military presence in Afghanistan.

Mr Balkenende now leads an interim government until early national elections brought forward to June 9.

Some 12 million Dutch out of a total population of 16.5 million were registered to vote in Wednesday's elections, viewed as a test of political loyalties and far-Right leanings ahead of national polls.