A bittersweet week for Muslims in the Netherlands
A bittersweet week for Muslims in the Netherlands
Voices 5 min read
09 Jul, 2021
Opinion: In the Netherlands, and across northern Europe, Islamophobia is no longer seen as an ignorant minority ideology, but has become a more acceptable part of mainstream debate, writes Malia Bouattia.
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld a guilty verdict against PVV leader Geert Wilders on 6 July, 2021 for inciting racial hatred. [Getty]
It has been a bittersweet week for Muslims in the Netherlands. The announcement of far-right Geert Wilders conviction for inciting hate was welcomed, but this news was followed by yet another attack on a mosque in Amsterdam.
Dutch voters are heading to polling stations en masse for the third and final day of an election dominated by the coronavirus crisis, which is expected to return Prime Minister Mark Rutte to power for a fourth term.
The two most recent polls, conducted after voting began on Monday, showed Rutte’s centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, taking approximately 25 percent of the vote.
This would see the VVD win between 34 and 36 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
Rutte had topped opinion polls by a wide margin for about a year, but his lead has shrunk in recent weeks.
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Geert Wilders anti-migration party has closed the gap on the ruling conservatives in the Dutch election, an early poll revealed today.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte s People s Party for Freedom and Democracy retains a lead of 10 percentage points over Wilders populist, anti-EU party.
Rutte is projected to win between 34 and 38 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, while Wilders is forecast to win between 17 and 21 seats, according to the respected Peilingwijzer survey.
The 54-year-old PM s popularity soared over the last year as he took centre stage to outline the government s response to the pandemic, but it was hammered two months ago by a child benefits scandal which forced his entire cabinet to resign.