The Last Lap

Our Flemish correspondent VH has sent a snapshot of the last day before the Dutch general election, based on translations of three Dutch newspaper articles. He includes additional notes of his own:

First, from Elsevier:

Wilders: For six years I have debated while wearing a bulletproof vest

by Arne Hankel

For the past six years, PVV leader Geert Wilders has debated while wearing a bulletproof vest. He said that on Monday [June 7] during a-party leaders’ debate on Dutch TV. “I would not have been threatened with death if I had criticized the Christian religion or Hindus,” Wilders told PvdA [Labour Party, Socialists] leader Job Cohen. Geert Wilders then asked Job Cohen why he thought he had to wear a bulletproof vest, and told Cohen “People who criticize Islam are being murdered or receive hundreds of thousands of threats every year”.

Cohen responded by saying that it was “a disgrace” that Wilders needed to be protected, but on the other hand found it really would be “too far to lump all Muslims together”. According to Cohen, the Dutch, in a democratic society, may believe what they want. However, according to him, radicalism has to be curbed, such as radical Islam or radical animal-rights activists.

Wilders was quoting Pim Fortuyn and called the Islam “a danger to Dutch society”. He said that Cohen bows to Islam. Cohen in return said that Wilders would allow a Keppeltje [yarmulke] in the Netherlands but not a headscarf, and “allow a church but not a mosque”.

According to Wilders, Cohen has insulted hundreds of thousands Dutch citizens by stating that the PVV leader skirts the edge of the rule of law. “You have chosen for the perpetrators in stead of the victims,” Wilders told him, and referred to the role of Cohen as mayor of Amsterdam after the [Moroccan jihad] riots in Amsterdam’s ‘Diamond District’ [when a Jewish couple were advised to move somewhere else due to threats and abuses by Moroccan Muslims]. “You bow to Islam; I don’t. Our culture and our country will remain as they are,” Wilders said.

In the same debate, VVD [center-right liberals] leader Mark Rutte, who leads the polls at the moment^[1], wondered aloud why the electorate of the CDA [Christian Democrats] leader Jan Peter Balkenende [Prime Minister of four cabinets between 2002 and 2010] should still trust him, for according to Rutte, he is responsible for “the totally failed restoration policy” in recent years. Rutte blamed Balkenende for having left the entire economic policy to the Socialists [PvdA of Cohen]: “That was devastating.”

Balkenende — backed by PvdA leader Cohen — said that unemployment would have greatly increased if the substantial proposals for budget cuts of the VVD would have been implemented. Moreover, Balkenende also stressed that the government has always acted in line with advice from international experts.

Geert Wilders was voted winner of this party-leaders-debate with 21 percent of the vote, ahead of PvdA leader [and former mayor of Amsterdam] Job Cohen (20 percent) and VVD leader Mark Rutte (19 percent).

From De Telegraaf:
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Teacher loses job because he is a parliamentary candidate for the PVV

Alexander Kops, the number 27 on the list of the Party for Freedom, has lost his job. The German language-teacher revealed this yesterday during a pilot of the new public broadcaster PowNed [of GeenStijl.nl] that will start broadcasting later this year. Kops said that his contract with the school will not be extended. When he was asked why, he said: “that is what I also wonder.”

He had been informed by the director that his functioning was not perfect. Funnily enough, a week before the list of candidates for the PVV was made public, he was told that his performance was sufficient.

A few weeks ago, During the pilot of the broadcaster PowNed, reporter Rutger Castricum had visited the teacher in the high school where he works. Then there was already a disagreement over combining his work as a teacher with being a candidate for the PVV.

Also from De Telegraaf:

Monitoring of polling stations in the Netherlands

The city of Utrecht — where in the last three days six cars were set on fire^[2] — will deploy additional private security guards in several polling stations. In addition, Stadstoezicht-staff [city security, mostly known for handing out parking tickets] will be monitoring the polling stations during their ordinary surveillance.

The monitored locations include the voting booths, the shopping mall Hoog Catharijne, and the Central Station [which is next to the shopping mall that often is terrorized by enriched youngsters]. Also, the polling station at the Boerhaaveplein in the troubled neighborhood Ondiep — where a week ago, due to a sudden jihad riot by Moroccans, a group-ban was introduced — will receive additional security personnel.

“We have experience there with nuisance youths at polling stations,” a spokesman for the City of Utrecht said. The purpose of the extra supervision is essentially to have an orderly [voting] process.

The city of Rotterdam will deploy additional surveillance with 122 of the 316 polling stations.

Notes:

[1] A few months ago, when VVD party leader Rutte started profiling with PVV issues such as mass-immigration, Rutte was pushed forward by the MSM as the acceptable alternative to Geert Wilders, while at the same time the media kept on heavily demonizing and attacking the PVV, without addressing the issues the PVV is putting forward [smaller government, lower taxes, less immigration, more security]. This may possibly lead the weak of heart to give up and run over to Rutte. At the same time, the supporters of the anti-Wilders party D66 [liberals] defected to the PvdA of its new leader Job Cohen, who has a better chance to enter a coalition government and exclude the PVV.

The voters who switched from the PVV to the VVD might run into the same trap they encountered in 1998, when after the elections the immigration-critical VVD party leader Frits Bolkestein was promoted to the EU and the left wing in the VVD took over. Today the left-wing of the VVD again made it known that it prefers a cabinet with the anti-Wilders, pro-immigration, -Islamization and -bureaucracy-party D66, instead of a coalition government with the PVV.

Still, the Labour Party (PvdA) has now also initiated a smear campaign against VVD party leader [and bachelor] Rutte, in which the latter is pictured as a mama’s boy reading gay adult magazines. It must be noted that all smear campaigns, as in the past, erupt from the left wing end of the political spectrum, thereby preventing any debate on the real issues.

[2] Twitter-link via HetVrijeVolk.com: “Voertuigbrand” means “Car on fire”.