A Sandwich With a Spine

Geert Wilders launched his party’s campaign for the June 9 elections with a speech in Rotterdam last night. Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated an article about the event as well the speech itself, along with some additional relevant material.

First, from De Telegraaf:

Wilders wants to reconquer the Netherlands

“Here in Rotterdam we plant our flag and begin the reconquest of the Netherlands.” Geert Wilders had a clear message on Monday evening in Rotterdam at the start of the his Party for Freedom’s campaign for the parliamentary elections on June 9. He deliberately chose Rotterdam, the city of Pim Fortuyn, “the man who paid with his life for his ideals.”

Wilders again indicated that he wants to govern. “The Netherlands needs a strong PVV that can put affairs in order.” And: “Without the PVV in a new government, the Netherlands will descend further into a morass of politically correct inaction, and the problems will not be solved but only worsen.”

According to Wilders, the CDA [Christian Democrats], PvdA [Labour, Socialists] and VVD [Center-Right Liberals] have made an ever bigger mess of it in recent decades when they governed. The PVV leader warned his supporters that a vote for VVD leader Mark Rutte or CDA leader Jan Peter Balkenende might just as well be a vote for Job Cohen (PvdA) and Alexander Pechtold (D66).

Wilders especially turned against Cohen, leader of the PvdA, whom he blamed for having no spine. The red flag that characterizes the Labour Party has made way for a red carpet being rolled out for Islam and mass immigration, according to the PVV leader. The PVV chooses optimism and hope, he said. “We are hard where needed, and soft where possible.” Opposite Islam the PVV places “our identity” and “opposite Job Cohen more security and less immigration,” he said.

A relaxed Wilders on stage had short conversations with candidates on the list. He sat on a bar stool in front of an audience of about two hundred interested people who later were able to put forward their questions in conversations with the candidates. Afterwards Wilders’ sympathizers queued to have their picture taken with Wilders and to have a short talk.

At the beginning of election night, Fleur Agema, number two on the PVV list, had already explained that the training of candidates started two years ago in little classes on Saturday. Agema and Barry Madlener, who now represents the party in Europe, then pretended to be “Barend en Van Dorp” [former TV news show]. In those knowledge quizzes Wilders played Mulder [Jan Mulder, left wing sidekick to the presenters Barend and Van Dorp]. “It was always a feast,” said Agema, who has the daily political leadership of the PVV fraction, according to Wilders.

Wilders said not a word about the two of the top ten candidates who have now been pulled. The discredited number five on the list, Gidi Markuszower, withdrew Saturday night.^[1] The number nine, Mellony van Hemert, had already preceded him in mid-April due to “medical reasons”.

Surrounded by security guards, Wilders entered the hall accompanied by the song “Eye of the Tiger,” from the soundtrack of the movie Rocky III. The loud bang that shot paper streamers into the theatre at the start of the evening, shortly caused a shock in the highly secured building at the south bank of Rotterdam. But Wilders’ wide grin made it clear that with this he contributed to this PVV party.

Below is the speech Geert Wilders gave in Rotterdam, as posted at the PVV website:
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Speech by Geert Wilders — PVV election night, Rotterdam, April 26

Dear friends, with this great list we will engage in the battle. With this list we will carry on a great campaign. To reconquer the Netherlands. With this list we will light a beacon. I hereby declare the election campaign of the Party for Freedom officially opened!

Folks, did you watch “Zembla” [TV program] yesterday?

In that program the state broadcaster compared us to Nazis, Milosevic, and ethnic cleansers. Indeed, where would we be without the state broadcaster? Of us all, for us all. But apart from that: the name of the program nicely indicates where we’ll have to send those leftist activists, after we have taken them off the subsidy-infusion: To Nova Zembla.

They are themselves convinced the earth is warming, so surely they will not oppose it.

Friday we presented our election program. And today our campaign begins. There was only one place we could do that: here in Rotterdam, here in Rotterdam-South [South bank of Rotterdam]. For this is not an ordinary city. This is the city of Coen Moulijn [1970s Feyenoord football celebrity], and Pietje Bell [famous children’s book series]. But more than anything else: this is the city of Pim Fortuyn. The man who paid with his life for his ideals.

This is also the city which is cracking at the seams like no other, as a result of mass immigration and Islamization. Entire neighborhoods are being Islamized. What was once the largest port in the world, is now the capital of Eurabia. A city of minarets and a mega-Mosque. There has never been any doubt about it. Only here in the city of Pim Fortuyn could we begin. And we do that tonight.

Here in Rotterdam we plant our flag and begin the reconquest of the Netherlands. We believe the best days of the Netherlands still lie ahead. That we are heading for a future that is many times more wonderful than what we leave behind us. If we only dare, if we only dare to choose. On June 9, the Netherlands can choose.

We choose for optimism and hope. Our election is the agenda for hope and optimism. The best election program, that may count on support among many Dutch people. We are hard where needed, and soft where possible.

If you say: I agree with that program, then you are not the only one. Maurice de Hond (of Peil.nl) has polled our positions, and it appears that the electorate agrees with us on many points. The aversion towards mass immigration, the repulsion felt towards Islam, and opposition to Europe. The Netherlands is more PVV-minded than the state broadcaster will ever let you know. Scrapping of the JSF [Joint Strike Fighter], ten thousand additional nurses in the health service. The Netherlands wants it. Only in the canal zone and Hilversum are they against it.

We choose for the people who do not get it for nothing in the Netherlands. We choose for Henk and Ingrid. Ordinary Dutch people who work hard and worry about safety in their city, district and street, about mass immigration and Islamization, about the poor care for their parents, about high taxes, the economic crisis, the financing of their children’s study.

And the PVV wants to govern. We want to change the Netherlands. We want to take our responsibility. Without the PVV in a new government, the Netherlands will descend further into a morass of politically correct inaction. Without the PVV the problems of the Netherlands will not be solved, but will only worsen.

And do not forget: the CDA [Christian Democrats], PvdA [Labor, Socialists] and VVD [Liberals] are parties who already did it together before, have governed together in “Purple” [name given for a cabinet with the PvdA (red), VVD (blue), and D66] and in center-right or other cabinets. We have seen them all. We have seen all pass by. They have created an ever bigger mess. That may happen again after June 9. A vote for Mark Rutte [VVD] or Jan Peter Balkenende [CDA] may, just like that, be a vote for Cohen [PvdA] and Alexander Pechtold [D66, Liberal Socialists].

What the Netherlands needs is a strong PVV that can put affairs in order. We are a party that wants to solve the problems, even if it doesn’t suit the political elite, even if the solutions are difficult. On mass immigration and Islam, about health care, on crime and high taxes, about cutting down on left-wing hobbies [such as development aid and global warming, etc.] and tackling the economic crisis. The PVV is desperately needed to make a stronger country of the Netherlands. For a tough but social policy there is no better choice than a vote for our PVV!

The PVV offers the Netherlands hope and optimism. But we know: it is a hope without illusions. Because we see what is going on in our country. More and more citizens wonder whether their future is still in the Netherlands. Tens of thousands of Dutch people leave our cities, tens of thousands of Dutch people leave our country. The question why The Hague [the government] continues with its unwholesome actions that are not supported by our people occurs to ever more Dutch citizens.

Meanwhile among many people the feeling arises that we are in the process of losing the Netherlands. Neighborhood after neighborhood, street after street, school after school. Mass immigration has achieved a sad record, and the coming years will only continue to explode. Crime is rampant, and anyone who watches “Opsporing Verzocht” [the TV program “Crime Watch”] for just two minutes knows that crime is often the result of the policy of “Sinterklaas come, but bring your servant inside”.

To many of the problems that afflict Netherlands the same diagnosis applies: elites have drifted away from reality and on their own started to do things that are no good to the ordinary people. Our elites have embraced the idea of “anything goes”. There is no good or evil, all cultures are equal, be they Islam or Christianity, shaking hands or not, who cares.

Even so, the Left-wing potentate have united with Islam. The Left and the Islam hitch up together. The leftist elite with pleasure closes its eyes to the reality: women’s oppression, hatred against gays, benefit dependency, street terrorism, the hostility towards democracy, etc.

Our pride which the Dutch for decades with conviction have paid for, the welfare state, has deteriorated into a magnet for adventurers. No longer a shield for the weak, but a collection point for loafing immigrants. And who pays that? That is you. Henk and Ingrid are paying for Ali and Fatima.

Are we powerless? Should we patiently watch everything we hold dear being mangled by that nutty elite?

Of course not. The Netherlands must opt for solutions. If we want to, we can do it. Our ancestors saw a sloppy swamp-delta, and said: this will become an oasis. Rotterdam people once saw their city bombed to rubble, and said: together we put our shoulders under it. The Party for Freedom sees a country that is sinking further and further into the swamp and says: punch it up!

Pim Fortuyn already said it: “Because this country is fed up. C’est ça, that is what I stand for.”^[2]

The PVV stands par excellence for the people who don’t get something for nothing. The PVV chooses for a caring Netherlands. We will with pleasure open the purse for ten thousand extra nurses, with a higher salary, in the nursing homes for our elderly. We are also opposed to an increase of the private risk in health care. We keep our hands off student grants and the student (public transport) travel pass. We will not touch the unemployment benefit and mortgage tax relief. We do not want a relaxation of the dismissal rights and the age for the state pension should remain at 65.

The PVV chooses an economically prosperous Netherlands. Where citizens and businesses pay taxes as little as possible, so they can spend their own money the way they decide themselves. A Netherlands that is not stationary, but moves, thus more roads and no road pricing. We choose a smaller government, without too much paternalism. For a sparkling democracy, with referendums. No European super-state, but economic cooperation. No network of subsidized left-wing action groups. And above all: for a secure and safe Netherlands where the scum are arrested and deported, and not subsidized and coddled.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are not the only party participating in the elections. The PvdA was thinking: you know what, the mayor of Amsterdam [Job Cohen] becomes our candidate. What he has done for Amsterdam he can do for the Netherlands.

The question is whether that is a pledge or a threat.

We are always finding out more of what Job Cohen has actually done for Amsterdam. Not much for the original residents, those who now live in [the cities of] Almere and Purmerend. But for fortune-seekers he has been on his feet 24 hours a day. Cohen is one hundred percent pro-Islam. He finances a radical mosque. The mayor of the canal zone advocates an Islamic culture in the Netherlands. Learning Dutch is not necessary according to him. Cohen literally says: we must accept Muslims who discriminate against their wives. Even shaking hands with women is not needed according to him.

In the canteen of the Amsterdam police force, you can order something delicious. A sandwich “Cohen”. Which is a sandwich with flabby meat. It is described as: “Delicious, without spine”. By his own chief of police chef, Cohen is called a beach ball, one that blows with all winds.

The PvdA is the party of the double passports. In the old days the PvdA had a red flag. Now it is the club of the red carpet. The red carpet for Islam. Folks, I say: The Netherlands has no need for beach balls, but for leadership.

Dear friends, on June 9th you can place your order in the canteen of our democracy. Then you can decide for yourself if you want a sandwich with or without spine.

Dear friends, put it in your agenda. On June 9 we will have a party. Then we’ll celebrate the mega-gain of the PVV. Until then we will light a beacon in our country with this group of giants [the candidates] and our thousands of volunteers. We’ll begin with that right now. Our volunteers are on the road as of tonight. They will go door to door and distribute hundreds of thousands of pamphlets throughout the Netherlands with our message. Today, here in Rotterdam, the reconquest of the Netherlands begins.

Are we powerless? Of course not.

• Opposite more of the same, we place decisiveness.
  
• Opposite Islam, we place our identity.
  
• Opposite the multi-nonsense, patriotism.
  
• Opposite the canal zone, Henk and Ingrid.
  
• Opposite the destruction of a caring Netherlands, the protection of the citizen.
  
• Opposite the pessimism, ten thousand new nurses and ten thousand new police officers.
  
• Opposite the cultural relativist malaise, we place Dutch hope and optimism.
  
• And opposite Job Cohen, more security and less immigration.

Dear friends, we will go for it! Choose list 5, choose the Party for Freedom!

Thank you!

Notes:

[1]		Gidi Markuszower was attacked by the left-wing press for “illegal possession of weapons” and for having called for a ban on Goldstone report supporters: GeenStijl: In 2008 Gidi spent a second at the police station due to a contravention of the Arms Act. Or actually not really. He was just in the possession of a firearms license but did not comply with transport restrictions. After a chat in the police station the case was dismissed by the judiciary. Obviously, because Gidi was at the time was certified security. Nevertheless, reason enough for the Vrij Nederland [left wing opinion magazine] journalist @Neeeltje to twitter: “Breaking: PVV’er arrested for illegal possession of weapons!” That kind of headline scores much better, of course. De Pers: Markuszower, number five on the PVV-list for the next elections, is a member of the church council of the Nederlands-Israëlitische Hoofdsynagoge, NIHS [Dutch-Israelite Main Synagogue] in Amsterdam. In late March he submitted a motion calling for a ban (cherem) on anyone who publicly defends the UN report by Richard Goldstone on the Gaza war. The radical appeal is justified, according to Markuszower, because the Goldstone report, in which Israel is accused of war crimes, brings the existence of that country in serious jeopardy. Still, there was no room left whatsoever for Gidi Markuszower to counter the attacks and explain his positions on the Goldstone report without damaging the PVV. He would also now risk being permanently in the crosshairs of the left-wing demonization machine. Reason enough for Gidi Markuszower to decide to step down: “Today I decided to withdraw my MP candidacy for the Party for Freedom. For the past two weeks I have been allowed to experience what it means to be constantly held under a negative magnifying glass. In such a position I do not feel senang (Indonesian for “comfortable” or “at ease”) and do not wish to continue the next four years like that. I continue to fully endorse the PVV and I am convinced that the party will achieve a resounding election victory on June 9.” [source: GeenStijl] Dagelijkse Standaard concluded: […] Gidi Markuszower is the victim of a leftist witch-hunt. That is the motive for him to withdraw as a candidate or the PVV. Franciso van Jole [extreme left-wing demonizer] was one of those “journalists” who let his hatred of the PVV flow seamlessly into hatred of Markuszower, and did not refrain from linking to his being Jewish. […] The left-wing press has learned little after Pim Fortuyn. Again an atmosphere of fear and intimidation had been created in which politicians who refuse to endorse the leftists’ ideas of salvation are torn down mercilessly. A sad observation.
[2]		See also: Then and Now: Part Three: [00:29] Because this country is FED UP! … C’est ÇA! That is what I stand for.