Wilders hits out at Islam as support slumps
NETHERLANDS: Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders made use of the last televised debate just hours before voting opened in the Netherlands general election to lash out at Islam as a religion of violence, as polls showed support for his party falling.
‘‘Islam is the greatest threat facing the Netherlands. This is an existential problem. The future of our country is at stake. Islam and freedom don’t go together,’’ Wilders said on national public broadcaster NOS.
Wilders highlighted dual loyalties as shown by Turkish protesters in Rotterdam over the weekend and pointed to high crime levels among Muslim immigrant communities.
Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) has lost support in recent opinion polls, used inflammatory language to contrast Mohammed with Jesus. ’’Mohammed was a warlord, a paedophile,’’ he said, calling for Dutch Christian culture to be safeguarded.
The prospect of Wilders emerging as the winner of the election has been thrown into doubt by two polls on the eve of voting that showed his anti-islam, antieuropean Union party slumping to fifth place in one survey and third in another.
The final poll from I&O Research showed Wilders’ party on 16 seats in the 150-member lower house of parliament, down four from a survey released just the day before. The last Ipsos survey before the election gave the Freedom Party 20 seats, a drop of three from last week.
Both polls showed Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals gaining three seats, to 27 and 29 respectively, following a campaign centred on identity and migration and perhaps the most divisive since World War II.
Given the large number of undecided voters and the margins of error, the pollsters said the election was too close to call. With no clear outcome in sight, and the firewall around the PVV erected by all other major parties, coalition talks are predicted to be difficult and drawn-out.
- DPA, Bloomberg