While local elections in Holland are usually a subdued affairfocused on issues such as cycle paths and rubbish collection, today’spoll was dominated by immigration and Afghanistan.
The Dutch went to the polls today to elect local authorities in aballot seen as a gauge of the national mood and the strength of the farright, 10 days after the government collapsed and three months beforenational elections.
With almost 400 local authorities being elected, the focus was ononly two, the votes in the capital The Hague and the central town ofAlmere, because of the campaign by the anti-Muslim populist GeertWilders to establish his Freedom party in local government for thefirst time.
Wilders, who likens the Qur’an to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and wantsMuslim immigrants deported, is bidding fair to win the general electionin June, with the latest opinion polls giving him 27 of the 150 seatsin The Netherlands’ highly fragmented political scene.
The maverick rightwinger is expected at the House of Lords on Fridayon an invitation from the UK Independence Party for a screening of hisincendiary anti-Islamic film, Fitna, after the Home Office barred himfrom entering Britain last year, a ban that was rescinded.
Today the town halls in The Hague and Almere were under heavysecurity because of the tension fanned by the Freedom party campaign.In both towns and elsewhere scores of men and women turned up to votewearing headscarves, in an ironic protest against Wilders’s demand fora tax on Muslim headgear and for the wearing of headscarves to bebanned in all public buildings.
His Freedom party is running for only two local authorities because of a lack of resources and candidates.
While local elections in Holland are usually a subdued affairfocused on issues such as cycle paths and rubbish collection, today’spoll was dominated by immigration and Afghanistan.
The coalition government of Christian and social democrats fell 10days ago because the Labour party, led by Wouter Bos, the financeminister, refused to extend the presence of 2,000 Dutch troops inAfghanistan who are to be withdrawn from August. It was the first Natogovernment to fall because of the war and the collapse looks likely toend the career of Jan Peter Balkenende, the Christian Democrat primeminister in office for eight years. The Afghan pullout is popular andLabour has risen in the polls as a result. But Wilders appears to bethe biggest beneficiary of the political disarray.
Voter turnout in The Hague and Almere was several points up today onfour years ago, suggesting the Freedom party could do well. In Almere,a new town in central Holland with a population of nearly 200,000 andhardly any immigrants, Wilders’s party was being tipped to win. In TheHague the contest was more even, with Labour and liberals also expectedto do well. In European elections last summer the Freedom party camesecond, trouncing Labour in its heartland cities of the western andnorthern coasts.
A Wilders win in the Dutch capital would be a sensation. Polls predict he could triple his vote at the general election.
Several centre and leftwing parties have erected a cordon sanitairearound Wilders, vowing not to coalesce with him in government. But theChristian Democrats and some rightwing liberals are hedging their bets.