This article at MSN is in Dutch, so let me summarize the key findings of the latest poll: the social democrats would lose bigtime if elections were held today. The traditionally biggest – or nearly biggest – party in the Netherlands, the PvdA, would win a mere 20 out of 150 seats. At this moment, this party holds 33 seats in Parliament. They won these seats during the elections in 06. 33 seats meant failure on part of the social democratic leadership.
When I read the first paragraph and headline, I thought that this would mean that the Socialist Party (SP) would gain significantly: not so. At this moment the SP holds 25 seats in Parliament. If elections were held today, they would lose one. The Christian Democratic Party (CDA), meanwhile, would lose 3 (down from 41 to 38). The VVD, my party (liberal conservative), currently holds 22 seats and would continue to do so.
Where, then, will all the seats go the PvdA loses?
Amazingly, these seats will go to the Party for the Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid). Wilders’ party currently holds nine seats in Parliament. If elections were held today, however, the PVV would win 19 seats. In other words, it would become almost as big as the PvdA.
Now, I do not have a lot of sympathy for the PvdA, but I am not a big fan of Wilders either. In the past, he said some things that needed to be said, but these days, he only seems interested in insulting as many people as possible. His latest comments include:
– “The Koran should be made illegal”
– “I have enough of the worshipping of Mohammed and Allah in the Netherlands, not one more mosque should be build”
– “The root of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed as documented in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Koran”
These are obviously idiotic statements and I worry about what it says about the Netherlands that this man is becoming so incredibly popular.
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