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There is once again unrest in The Hague due to hate speech by the attention addict Geert Wilders. In a tweet he called for Mayor Femke Halsema to be expelled from the Netherlands. Administrators react shocked to the language of the leader of the largest coalition party in charge in The Hague. Both Mayor Hubert Bruls of Nijmegen and his colleague Sharon Dijksma of Utrecht call on the cabinet members to distance themselves and provide a firm response.
Exile is a cruel punishment from the Middle Ages that fell into disuse in later times because of its inhumane nature. After the Nazi reign of terror in World War II, the punishment was no longer applied. Wilders wants to reintroduce the possibility of punishment, as he makes clear in a message on exile.
In the 18th century, European states exiled criminals to penal colonies, which was often called deportation. The white Australian population initially consisted largely of exiled criminals. In modern times, the Soviet Union exiled criminals and political criminals to internal prison camps Gulag Archipelagooften as a form of mass deportation. Dissidents, including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, were also exiled abroad. Domestic exile was also practiced in Chile and some African countries, among others. Under the apartheid regime, South Africa had a special form of restriction of freedom, known as banning.
Wilders wants Halsema to be banished because she allowed a protest demonstration while he does not like it, namely against Israel’s war violence.
It AD reported that the cabinet members, who like to be strong on other topics, are now diving for a response. The non-party Prime Minister Dick Schoof sticks to the weak response that the cabinet members “just support every mayor”. NSC, the party that promised to ensure ‘good governance’ and ‘protection of the rule of law’ and was allocated 20 seats by voters for this purpose, also refuses to stand up for the threatened Halsema:
“Not all coalition parties ignore the PVV’s texts so easily. It is especially sensitive for the New Social Contract. That party is deeply divided over cooperation with Wilders, many NSC members believe that Wilders undermines the rule of law with his plans and statements However, NSC interim leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven does not want to respond to Wilders’ message on X on Tuesday. The only thing Van Vroonhoven says is: “I would not have posted it (message).” And the following applies: “I’m not very good at tweeting either,” Van Vroonhoven said on Tuesday morning after the weekly coalition meeting in Wilders’ room.”
VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz, also an Amsterdam resident, who makes a habit of responding to statements and even attacks TV makers, meanwhile remains deafeningly silent and thus seems to express her agreement with the views of her most important coalition partner.
Frans Timmermans speaks out clearly after Wilders’ threat to Halsema.
Constitutional law professor Wim Voermans points out that the threat that Wilders makes to Halsema also conflicts with the agreements in the coalition agreement. In it, Wilders, whose signature is on the agreement, promised, among other things, to respect the institutions of the rule of law and to leave others intact in the debate.
Geert Wilders has complete disregard for the basic line for guaranteeing the rule of law that the coalition parties agreed upon prior to the formation of the cabinet. This is once again evident from questions from NOS journalist Nouschka van der Meijden. After all, it states that: “the institutions that support the rule of law will be respected and protected”. It was one of the demands that Pieter Omtzigt of NSC made for government cooperation with the extreme right-wing, anti-rule of law PVV.
Faced with this, Wilders adds fuel to the fire by calling for the resignation of Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema. When it is then pointed out to him that the office of mayor also falls under those institutions, he says he has “no respect for Halsema whatsoever”.
In de talkshow Eva Halsema himself said on Tuesday evening that it is increasingly looking as if PVV leader Wilders “only wants to allow demonstrations that he agrees with. The next step is for Wilders to say that he does not feel like having a demonstration against the government on Budget Day.” , and that is not possible. That is an authoritarian sentiment that we really have to be careful of.”
She further called it “toxic” that Wilders believes the demonstrators should be expelled from the country. “Turning against our Jewish residents is anti-Semitism. But you must always be able to demonstrate against governments, under any circumstances. You must be able to demonstrate against the Israeli state and then you are not an anti-Semite. to people who have sincere intentions, then you plant a poison.”
Several mayors supported Halsema on Tuesday. For example, Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma called Wilders’ hate speech “completely irresponsible” and “undermining the authority of mayors”.
In the meantime, the cabinet continues to cowardly look away from Wilders’ undermining practices by, at most, half-heartedly dismissing the PVV leader’s comments without decisively condemning them. When asked, BBB leader Caroline van der Plas did not want to talk about Geert Wilders’ stirring up hatred “because there is anti-Semitism in the country”. She probably missed that Wilders himself idolizes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is running campaigns in his own country that are full of anti-Semitism, or that Wilders is full of praise for the German AfD and Austrian FPÖ, parties that consist of and/or collaborating with literal neo-Nazis.
