THE HAGUE, 03/11/09 - Geert Wilders believes Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan and centre-left (D66) leader Alexander Pechtold should be held responsible if he should ever be assassinated. They are creating a climate of hate in which lunatics are incited to violence against critics of Islam, according to Wilders.
It was exactly five years ago yesterday that filmmaker and Islam critic Theo van Gogh was butchered by 'home-grown' terrorist Mohammed Bouyeri. Wilders considers Van der Laan and Pechtold are behaving like "political accomplices" of Bouyeri. Statements made by the PvdA minister and D66 leader yesterday morning contribute to a "climate of hatred and violence against me and the PVV (Party for Freedom)," according to Wilders.
Van der Laan said in De Pers newspaper yesterday morning that Wilders party is a threat to democracy, partly because it is the biggest in the polls. "If a certain person calls for something crazy, you should not immediately think: Is this dangerous for the constitutional state? But if many people call for it, then this is something you must take into account."
The minister confirmed that he was referring to the large following of the PVV - most polls say Wilders would be prime minister if elections were held now. " I do not think that (the polls) will become reality," Van der Laan added.
De Volkskrant published an article on Saturday in which it reported that three professors have concluded that the PVV ideology is extreme right. One of the researchers, Hans Moors, said he was unhappy with the Volkskrant article, saying it "lacked nuance".
Yesterday the newspaper however had D66 leader Pechtold's react to the alleged conclusions. "Geert Wilders is a racist and extreme right. Now at last there is an academic underpinning."
"PvdA and D66 have apparently learned nothing," from the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, riposted Wilders. "If something violent should ever happen against me or the PVV and its supporters, then everyone will from now on know that Van der Laan and Pechtold have contributed to a climate in which this seemed justified for certain lunatics".
Fortuyn was shot and killed on 6 May 2002 nine days before he would likely have become premier. On 2 November 2004, another Islam critic, Theo van Gogh, had his throat cut on the street in Amsterdam.
De Volkskrant said Saturday that a study commissioned by the home affairs ministry concludes that the PVV is "an extreme right party that mobilises Islamophobia and systemic hatred against the government" and thereby "undermines social cohesion and democracy in the country." The newspaper simultaneously reported that the ministry will not include this conclusion in the final report when this is published at an as yet unspecified date, saying it is afraid of strengthening Wilders' underdog position.
Researcher Moors said the draft version has not yet been discussed with the ministry and there can therefore be no argument about the conclusions. He added that the PVV is not named as an extreme right party, but that Wilders, due to his Islam position, can be placed increasingly "in the direction of the extreme right family."
Home Affairs Minister Guusje is expected to send the research report to the Lower House in December. It was drawn up by cultural anthropologist Jaap van Donselaar, who draws up the annual Extreme Right and Racism Monitor and counter-terrorism professor Bob de Graaff, as well as Moors. Wilders described the trio as "members of the leftwing research mafia".