Britannia Radio

In the absence of any results from OUR elections we have to fall back  
at looking at what the Dutch are thinking (remember they rejected the  
EU Constitution, but which they are getting anyway) .  The Dutch  
government refused to obey the EU injunction prohibiting publication  
of results.

The journalese term ‘far right’ is one of abuse and the journalist  
here uses it to stir up prejudice.  The term has no meaning at all  
and I suggest we think of it as ‘populist’ instead.

Mr Wilders was the one banned by that week's Home Secretary (Jacqui  
Smith) on security grounds but are we to ban the millions of Duitch  
people who voted for him.

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EU OBSERVER                    5.6.09

Netherlands embraces far right [“populist’]  in EU elections

    ANDREW WILLIS

The Dutch far-right  [“populist’ -cs] Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert  
Wilders made the greatest leap forward in the country's EU elections  
on Thursday (4 June), with 16.9 percent in exit polls. But the ruling  
conservatives came top overall.

The result is a major victory for the openly anti-Islamic party,  
giving it four seats in the European legislature and a possibility  
that this could rise to five once the final count is completed.

The Freedom Party came second only to the ruling Christian Democrats  
(CDA) of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which exit polls  
suggest will win 20 percent of the vote or five of the 25 seats up  
for grabs. This is a fall of four percent from the last European  
elections in 2004, resulting in the loss of two MEPs for the party.

As the xenophobic party's [If one is anti-Muslim in the light of the  
aggressive nature of that immigrant community that is no excuse for  
chucking derogatory descriptions around, cs]  celebrations got under  
way, Mr Wilders said his success was a vote against the current  
administration and an overly costly EU.

"People have had enough of Europe as it is now - a big Europe with  
Turkey possibly joining - that we spend billions on each year," he  
said according to newswires.
"I think some people have also had enough of the Balkenende and Bos  
Cabinet," he added, referring to the prime minister and his Labour  
Party finance minister.

The results tally with pre-election predictions of greater support  
for far right  [“populist”-cs]  and fringe parties as a result of the  
economic crisis and fears over immigration in the country.

The Labour Party - the junior coalition partner in the government -  
appeared the main loser in Thursday's vote, taking only 12.2 percent  
of the vote resulting in a drop from seven to three seats in the  
European parliament.
The third party in the government coalition, the small Christen Unie,  
a religious party that on some economic issues hews somewhat to the  
left, was at 6.9 percent of the vote, up from 5.9 percent in 2004,  
and projected to take two seats.

The other big winner is the left-liberal D66, which looks poised to  
take three seats with 11.3 percent of the vote, up from just one at  
the last European election. It is a major turn-around for the party,  
which in recent years was feared to be in danger of disappearing.
"There has been a clear No vote and a clear Yes vote," party leader  
Alexander Pechtold said, pointing out that the anti-Europe parties  
had won just eight of the 25 Dutch seats.
"Europe is the big winner tonight," he said.

The country's green party, Groenlinks, or 'Green Left' looks set to  
take 8.9 percent of the vote or three seats, an increase of one on 2004.

The far-left SP remained largely steady with 7.1 percent of the vote.
Exit polls showed voter turnout of 36.5 percent, down from 39.1  
percent in the last European elections in 2004.

Muslim concerns
The rise of Mr Wilders - who has described the Koran as fascist and  
who currently receives 24-hour protection following death threats –  
clearly came at the expense of governing coalition partners.

Fears amongst Protestant and Catholic voters over the country's  
roughly 800,000 Muslim inhabitants helped drive the strong support  
for the Freedom Party, which was contesting its first European  
elections.

Mr Wilders, who directed a short film that criticizes the Koran as a  
"fascist book", urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration  
policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation union.
"Turkey as [an] Islamic country should never be in the EU, not in 10  
years, not in a million years," Wilders said after voting.

Ireland and Czech Republic go to the polls
Both Ireland and the Czech Republic go to the polls on Friday, with  
the Irish turnout likely to be the highest in the EU.