SOME at least of the supporters of Dutch racist politician Geert Wilders have responded to his nationalist rhetoric for the sole reason that they do not want their country to change any more. For most reasonable people migration enriches the societies where it occurs. This is also the lesson of history. But spooked by rabid talk of Islamic terrorism and devious warnings that their country is being taken over by foreigners and foreign values, there are Dutch voters who have brought themselves to believe that Wilders and his Islamophobic campaigning can somehow protect them.
These people feel themselves at base to be perfectly decent and tolerant. They will tell anyone who will listen that they are not racist. But they will say that Holland is their country and they do not want it to change. Foreigners, for which read Muslims, are welcome provided they are prepared to integrate into Dutch society and not force their values down the throats of the indigenous population. These Wilders supporters will protest that they bear no one any ill will because of the color of their skin or their religious beliefs.
So what, it must be asked, have they made of Wilders’ latest rabid outburst in which he called ethnic Moroccans living in the Netherlands “scum” who made the streets unsafe? The rabble-rousing racist has finally brought his naked hatred of Muslims into the open. Gone is any ploy of trying desperately to make a reasoned case against immigration and instead out comes the monstrous face of his utter abhorrence of Arabs and Muslims.
Horrific though his bile-filled words may be, they should nevertheless perhaps be welcomed because it is frankly alien to the Dutch way to think of anyone as “scum”. The last time the people of Holland abandoned their conservative and non-confrontational principles was in their treatment of collaborators after the collapse of Nazi rule over 70 years ago. And the violent but brief vigilante justice of 1945 had everything to do with the brutality of the German occupation and the fury Dutchmen felt toward those of their fellow countrymen who had chosen to faithfully serve their German masters and their repressive administration.
Wilders chose to spew his poisonous “scum’ remark in a racially-diverse area of the port city of Rotterdam. But it must be wondered why he has resorted to gross insult at this stage of the campaign to win the 15 March general election. The answer may lie in polls that are beginning to show his support slipping. Some pollsters still have him winning the most seats but with all the other parties vowing not to work with him, he would be incapable of forming a government.
Therefore his reprehensible outburst may be an indication of desperation. If Wilders is losing the backing of voters who were once lured by his more muted anti-immigration rhetoric then he may have decided that there is no need for further pretense. He will come out into the open as a xenophobic bigot and completely outrage the feelings of the largely conservative electorate. Better be hanged for a sheep than a goat. If he is going to be kept from power then he wants it to be because he allowed no one to mistake his core message of complete contempt and abomination of anyone who does not share his warped racist views. He is going for broke.
