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Geert Wilders

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Geert Wilders
File:GeertWilders.jpg
A publicity photo of Geert Wilders
Chair of the parliamentary party
Party for Freedom
Incumbent
Assumed office
2006
Personal details
Born (1963-09-06) September 6, 1963 (age 61)
Venlo, Netherlands
Political partyPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (former), Party for Freedom
ProfessionPolitician, cineast, writer
Website[1]

Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician. He has been a member of the Tweede Kamer (Dutch House of Representatives) since 1998, first for the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and from 2006 for the Party for Freedom, a party which he founded and of which he is the political leader. Geert Wilders favors the restriction of immigration, particularly from non-Western countries. As self-proclaimed "defender of free speech" and critic of Islam, he has sought to ban the Koran in the Netherlands because he believes it to be in conflict with Dutch law.

Biography

Wilders was born in Venlo, Netherlands in the province of Limburg, where he was raised a Roman Catholic. He received his secondary education at the Mavo and Havo of the "R.K. St. Thomas College" in Venlo. He followed a health insurance course at the "Stichting Opleiding Sociale Verzekeringen" in Amsterdam and gained several Law certificates at the Dutch Open University. His father was a manager for the printing and copying manufacturing company Océ.[1]

After working in the health insurance industry, Wilders became a parliamentary assistant to Frits Bolkestein in 1990, in that time keeping up a heavy travel schedule, including a visit to Teheran, Iran.

Wilders' wife is Hungarian[citation needed]. They married in 1992.[1]

In 1997, Wilders was elected for the VVD to the municipal council of Utrecht, the fourth largest city of the Netherlands. A year later, he was elected to the national parliament.

Political career

In September 2004, Wilders left the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD in Dutch), having been a member since 1989, to form his own political party, Groep Wilders, later renamed Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV or Party for Freedom).[2] He left the liberal party, over a dispute within the VVD in late August 2004 about, among other things, his refusal to endorse the party's position that EU-accession negotiations must be started with Turkey. Geert Wilders has been in the Tweede Kamer since 1998.

His party program states that Wilders' party is committed to "freedom of the individual"; Wilders believes that the Netherlands has been held hostage by elitist (mostly social democrat and left-wing liberal) politicians for decades. He claims to want to give it "back to the people", and in this respect he has been labeled a populist by the establishment.

His political views (and so the ones of the PVV as well) often overlap those of the murdered Rotterdam politician Pim Fortuyn and his List Pim Fortuyn. There are strong resemblances, certainly on socio-economic issues, to libertarianism. Wilders wants to lower taxes, cut most welfare programs, raise highway speed limits and minimize state regulations by making it mandatory to scrap two legal rules for every new one to be instated. On the crime issue, he has supported a U.S.-style three strikes law with mandatory life sentences after three separate acts of violent crime.[citation needed]

In polls released following the assassination of Theo van Gogh, it was estimated that Wilders' party could win as many as 29 (out of 150) seats in the Dutch parliament (Tweede Kamer). With the uproar over the killing of Van Gogh subsiding, this number declined to a low of one in October 2005. In February 2006, after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, it rose again to three seats.

A few weeks after the assassination, Geert Wilders stayed away from regular meetings in parliament for several weeks. Even though a member's presence is not mandatory, it is uncommon not to show up for weeks on end. Wilders claims that he did this out of concern for his personal security. Having been assigned a new seating position in the parliamentary meeting hall (one further away from the public observation area), he has once again started to attend meetings.

Wilders is under constant security protection because of frequent threats to his life.[citation needed] On 10 November 2004, two suspected terrorists were captured after an hour-long siege of a building in The Hague. They had three grenades and have been accused of planning to murder Geert Wilders as well as then fellow MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The men in question were presumed members of what the Dutch intelligence agency, the AIVD, has termed the Hofstadgroep. In September 2007, a Dutch woman was sentenced a 1-year prison term for sending out more than 100 threatening emails to Wilders.[3]

In recent interviews, Geert Wilders more than once indicated that the Dutch constitution and European Convention on Human Rights should be amended or temporarily suspended to protect citizens from "Islamic extremism". He is in favor of stripping criminals with dual nationality of their Dutch citizenship and deporting them to their country of origin. This has led to considerable criticism.[citation needed]

In response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy Wilders posted the inflammatory cartoons on his website (1 February 2006), purportedly in support of the Danish cartoonists and freedom of speech. Following his publication, Wilders stated he had received more than 40 death threats in just two days.

In November 2006, PVV won, in its first parliamentary election, 9 of the 150 open seats.

The Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reported in May 2007 that Geert Wilders had been shadowed by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service for years, when he was foreign affairs spokesman for the VVD. During that time, Wilders had been regularly meeting officials at the Israeli Embassy in The Hague.[4] Sources in the security service said that the agency was surveilling conversations between Wilders and Israeli personnel.[5] The security services denied the allegations, insisting it had never shadowed or eavesdropped on Wilders.[6]

On 15 December 2007, Wilders was declared politician of the year by NOS-radio, a mainstream Dutch radio station. The parliamentary press praised his ability to dominate political discussion and to attract the debate and to get into publicity with his well-timed one-liners.[7] The editors eventually gave the title to Wilders because he was the only one who scored high both among the press as well as the general public.[8][9]

In response to Wilders' outspoken statements, a countermovement was organized in December 2007 with the stated aim to stop evil.[10]

Position on Islam

Referring to the increased population of Muslims in the Netherlands, Wilders has said:

"Take a walk down the street and see where this is going. You no longer feel like you are living in your own country. There is a battle going on and we have to defend ourselves. Before you know it there will be more mosques than churches!"[11]

Later, Wilders suggested that Muslims should 'tear out half of the Koran if they wished to stay in the Netherlands' because it contained 'terrible things' and that Muhammad would 'in these days be hunted down as a terrorist'. These statements caused strong reactions in Muslim countries such as Tunisia, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.[12][13]

On 8 August 2007, Wilders opined in a letter[14] to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that the Koran, which he called a "fascist book", should be outlawed in the Netherlands, like Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.[15] He stated that: "The book incites hatred and killing and therefore has no place in our legal order."[16]

On 15 August 2007, a representative of the Prosecutors' Office in Amsterdam declared that "dozens of reports" against Wilders had been filed, and that they were all being considered.[17] Due to this position on Islam, the rapper Appa said he did not care if Wilders would be shot in the head. Wilders then charged him with threatening with death. The rapper Appa denied actual threatening, repeating that he simply wouldn't care (if it happened), also accusing Wilders of having the same attitude towards Muslims.

Movie on islam

Main article: Fitna (film)

Position on Israel

In the past twenty five years Geert Wilders has visited Israel about forty times, he says. According to his own sayings, he has met Ariel Sharon ("many times") and Ehud Olmert, among others, in Israel. Furthermore, he claims tight connections with the Mossad.[18]

Originally, Wilders wanted to move to the Jewish state because he thought one could in Israel, different than in the Netherlands, 'work for your own money'.[18] Wilders worked in bread factories and a moshav. With the money he earned, he traveled through Israel and some near countries. He started to love Israel, or as he states it in his own words in 2003: "The past years I have visited many interesting countries, from Tunisia to Turkey and from Cyprus to Iran, but nowhere I have that special feeling of solidarity that I always get if I set foot on the Israeli Goerion-airport." [18]

Wilders has, in the eight years he has served in the Dutch Parliament, always supported Israel and attacked countries he perceives as enemies of Israel.[18] More than a few members of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy suspect Wilders of taking guidance from the Israeli Embassy in the Netherlands (which is only a few meters away from the Dutch Parliament) in order to question Dutch ministers. Wilders has always denied this. [18]

Furthermore, Wilders has made some proposals in the Dutch Parliament inspired by Israel. For example, in 2005 Wilders proposed implementing Israel's administrative detention in the Netherlands, a practice heavily criticized by human rights group Amnesty International. Also, at the time Wilders was member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, he had an employee who directly came from the Israeli Embassy. [18]

References

  1. ^ a b "Dutch parliament page on Wilders". Background information about career (Dutch). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ http://www.fitnathemovie.info/timeline.php
  3. ^ "Kort nieuws binnenland". NOS Nieuws. 2007-09-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ AIVD had Wilders in vizier, De Telegraaf, 9 May 2007.
  5. ^ 'AIVD schaduwde Wilders bij bezoeken ambassade', Elsevier, 9 May 2007.
  6. ^ AIVD ontkent schaduwen Wilders, Elsevier, 9 May 2007.
  7. ^ Wilders politicus van 2007, NOS Journaal, 15 December 2007
  8. ^ Wilders uitgeroepen tot winnaar in NOS-peiling, nu.nl, 15 december 2007
  9. ^ Steen, Michael (2007-12-27). "Anti-Islamic outsider is top Dutch politician". msnbc. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  10. ^ http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/2671490/Verzetsbeweging_tegen_Wilders.html?p=14,1
    "PVV-voorman Geert Wilders heeft met zijn plannen voor een provocerende film over de islam een tegenbeweging tegen zichzelf in gang gezet. Voorzitter van de HBO-Raad Doekle Terpstra vindt dat het tijd wordt 'het kwaad te stoppen' en heeft toegezegd mee te doen in een anti-Wildersbeweging."
  11. ^ Wilders: get rid of half of Koran!, Expatica, 13 February 2007.
  12. ^ Wilders refuses apology to Saudi Arabia, Expatica, 19 February 2007.
  13. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/09/wkoran109.xml
  14. ^ "Genoeg is genoeg: verbied de Koran". De Volkskrant. 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Wilders: verbied de Koran, ook in moskee". De Volkskrant. 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "'Qur'an should be banned' - Wilders strikes again". Radio Netherlands. 8 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Aangiftes tegen Wilders stromen binnen" (in Dutch). Elsevier. 15 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  18. ^ a b c d e f Volkskrant, 10 april 2007 Verliefd op Israël. Retrieved from http://zoek.volkskrant.nl/artikel?text=israel.lobby&FDOC=0&SORT=presence&PRD=20y&SEC=*&SO=*&DAT=*&ADOC=2.
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