THE GUARDIAN: Anti-Muslim populist hopes to establish Freedom party at local government level for first time as general election looms
The Dutch went to the polls today to elect local authorities in a ballot seen as a gauge of the national mood and the strength of the far right, 10 days after the government collapsed and three months before national elections.
With almost 400 local authorities being elected, the focus was on only two, the votes in the capital The Hague and the central town of Almere, because of the campaign by the anti-Muslim populist Geert Wilders to establish his Freedom party in local government for the first time.
Wilders, who likens the Qur'an to Hitler's Mein Kampf and wants Muslim immigrants deported, is bidding fair to win the general election in June, with the latest opinion polls giving him 27 of the 150 seats in The Netherlands' highly fragmented political scene.
The maverick rightwinger is expected at the House of Lords on Friday on an invitation from the UK Independence Party for a screening of his incendiary anti-Islamic film, Fitna, after the Home Office barred him from entering Britain last year, a ban that was rescinded.
Today the town halls in The Hague and Almere were under heavy security because of the tension fanned by the Freedom party campaign. In both towns and elsewhere scores of men and women turned up to vote wearing headscarves, in an ironic protest against Wilders's demand for a tax on Muslim headgear and for the wearing of headscarves to be banned 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 affair focused on issues such as cycle paths and rubbish collection, today's poll was dominated by immigration and Afghanistan. >>> Ian Traynor, Europe editor | Wednesday, March 03, 2010
