 | By Blacklisted Dictator
June 10, 2010 | Share |
From "The Gates of Vienna" website
Geert Wilders' Freedom Party Earns 22 Seats
by Dymphna
This is wonderful news. The Dutch media must be eating their ties by now:
The polls in The Netherlands have closed. The election appears too close to call. A final result may not be announced until 12:30 AM Amsterdam time.
The conservative Dutch Liberal Party (VVD) led by Mark Rutte, and the Labor party led by former Amsterdam Mayor, Job Cohen, are tied with 31 seats each. The Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders was the real surprise capturing 22 seats in the general election. This could position Wilders to be partner in whatever ruling coalition emerges.
Meanwhile, here’s my favorite quote from the material the Iconoclast gathered. It’s taken from an interview Mr. Wilders gave to The Jerusalem Post. He says precisely what I have believed for many years:
“If Israel gave, say, the West Bank to the Palestinians, this would not bring peace,” Wilders said. “The next step would be for the Palestinians to claim that Ashkelon, Ashdod, Haifa and Jerusalem are the next ‘settlements’ to be conquered.”
He added: “I always say that parents everywhere in the West sleep well at night because parents in Israel lie awake at night - because their children are fighting the jihad.”
To Israeli parents, G-d be with you.
Geraldine Coughlan, (BBC News, The Hague)
Many would not view the Freedom Party as an acceptable partner in a coalition.
Its leader, Geert Wilders, faces a criminal trial later this year on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination with his anti-Islamic film Fitna.
It is expected that the most likely coalition would be a left-right combination, known as a Purple Coalition - with the Liberals, Labour, and the smaller Green Left and Liberal Democrats.
Blacklisted Dictator
10 June, 2010 - 12:34
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ConservativeHome website
"Will Holland's likely new PM turn to Geert Wilders as a coalition partner?"
Further to yesterday's report, the right-wing VVD of Mark Rutte did win most seats in the Dutch elections (31 of 150) but will need to choose at least two coalition partners in order to have a parliamentary majority.
A coalition of the centre could see Mr Rutte form a coalition with the traditional centrist parties - Labour (who won 30 seats, down 3) and the Christian Democrats who won 20 - half their previous total).
Alternatively Mr Rutte - who did not rule out any coalition arrangement - could work with the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. Wilders did even better than expected - increasing his representation from 9 to 24 seats. This makes him Holland's third biggest party. Wilders was banned from entering Britain by Jacqui Smith when she was Home Secretary because of her belief that his attitude towards Muslims represented a danger to public safety.
Mr Wilders' left-ish economic views may be as much of a problem for Rutte as his opposition, for example, to new mosques being built. Rutte fought the election on a Thatcherite programme of deficit reduction.
The Times reviews the options:
"There are several main options for a new government, depending on the exact results: a “purple” coalition of Mr Rutte’s VVD with Labour and two other parties; a right-wing alliance of the VVD with the Christian Democrats, the Freedom Party and one other party; or a left-wing grouping of Labour with some or all of the Christian Democrats, the left-wing Liberals of D66, forecast to have ten MPs (up from seven) and the Greens (with eleven MPs, up from four), or the Socialists (with sixteen MPs, up from nine)."