THE HAGUE, 06/02/04 - Conservative (VVD) MP Geert Wilders has criticised the cowardice of his parliamentary colleagues. The Lower House building is plagued by "timid mice," he stated in weekly magazine HP/De Tijd.

Wilders claimed that parties conform far too much to agreements with other parties, MPs are complimented if they are not too hard on their own ministers and are rewarded as long as they conform to the pecking order. "The Lower House is a club that rewards risk evasion."

Wilders, a known representative of the rightwing section of the VVD, sharpened his criticism of Islam. If he had his way, a ban on headscarves would be introduced immediately. "And let them wave those headscarves" during demonstrations. "Bring them on!"

As Pim Fortuyn in the past, Wilders calls Islam a backward culture. "I am not concerned with the religion but with the political culture of Islam. Why are we afraid to say that Moslems should adapt themselves to us, because our standards and values happen to belong to a higher, better, more agreeable and more humane level of civilisation? No integration. Assimilation!"

Wilders was particularly critical of labour (PvdA). "Look at the old politburo of the PvdA, with people like Klaas de Vries and Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven. It is naturally not very pleasant for them to realise that this supposed socialistic utopia is rotten though and through at several crucial places."