03-04-2010, 07:31 PM
[size="6"]Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders makes strong showing in local polls[/size]
Mr Wilders's far-Right Party for Freedom (PVV) made a strong showing in local polls held Wednesday, while the traditionally strong Christian Democratic (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) parties lost support, early results showed. The PVV came first and second in the only two of 394 municipalities it contested.
It was the strongest party with 21.6 per cent of the vote in Almere, a city of 187,000 people near the capital Amsterdam previously won by the PvdA, and came second in the seat of government, The Hague - the Netherlands' third largest city with 442,000 residents.
"What is possible in The Hague and Almere is possible all over the country," said [size="3"]Mr Wilders, who is awaiting a hate speech trial for calling Islam a fascist religion and likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf[/size].
Mr Wilders was arrested and deported from Heathrow in February 2009 after the Home Office banned him on the grounds "that his presence in the UK could foster hatred and threaten community harmony in light of his anti-Muslim rhetoric".
This was the first municipal election for the PVV, with its mission of "fighting the Islamisation of the Netherlands".
The Netherlands' two biggest parties, the Christian Democratic Appeal and Labour Party, lost about two and six percentage points respectively with 93 per cent of the vote counted by Thursday morning, two weeks after their governing coalition collapsed at a national level.
The CDA of Jan Peter Balkenende, the outgoing prime minister, had dropped about two percentage points from 16.83 per cent in 2006.
The CDA and PvdA had been in government nationally until January 20, when Wouter Bos, then finance minister and vice premier, withdrew his Labour party from the coalition in a spat over extending the Netherlands' military presence in Afghanistan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...polls.html
Mr Wilders's far-Right Party for Freedom (PVV) made a strong showing in local polls held Wednesday, while the traditionally strong Christian Democratic (CDA) and Labour (PvdA) parties lost support, early results showed. The PVV came first and second in the only two of 394 municipalities it contested.
It was the strongest party with 21.6 per cent of the vote in Almere, a city of 187,000 people near the capital Amsterdam previously won by the PvdA, and came second in the seat of government, The Hague - the Netherlands' third largest city with 442,000 residents.
"What is possible in The Hague and Almere is possible all over the country," said [size="3"]Mr Wilders, who is awaiting a hate speech trial for calling Islam a fascist religion and likening the Koran to Hitler's Mein Kampf[/size].
Mr Wilders was arrested and deported from Heathrow in February 2009 after the Home Office banned him on the grounds "that his presence in the UK could foster hatred and threaten community harmony in light of his anti-Muslim rhetoric".
This was the first municipal election for the PVV, with its mission of "fighting the Islamisation of the Netherlands".
The Netherlands' two biggest parties, the Christian Democratic Appeal and Labour Party, lost about two and six percentage points respectively with 93 per cent of the vote counted by Thursday morning, two weeks after their governing coalition collapsed at a national level.
The CDA of Jan Peter Balkenende, the outgoing prime minister, had dropped about two percentage points from 16.83 per cent in 2006.
The CDA and PvdA had been in government nationally until January 20, when Wouter Bos, then finance minister and vice premier, withdrew his Labour party from the coalition in a spat over extending the Netherlands' military presence in Afghanistan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...polls.html