Geert Wilders gains 3 more seats after legal charges

Dutch voters' support for Wilders has jumped dramatically this past week after the public prosecution office's decision to charge Wilders over his constant public warnings concerning the ongoing islamisation of The Netherlands. Wilders and his wife now live under constant police protection because of his outspoken views towards Islam - he has for instance called for the Q'uran to be banned in its present form. and Islamic clerics have announced a 'fatwa' against him in the mosques - which is an order for all muslims to kill him whenever they are able. Wilders' voters' support base has been growing steadily ever since the outspoken, yellow-haíred politician left the Liberal opposition VVD party in 2004. see DUTCH link to opinion poll: For his party link see here For more background, see the previous stories on Geert Wilders here and here and here The authoritative Maurice De Hond opinion poll shows this week that if parliamentary elections were to be held this month, Geert Wilders' party ( the Freedom Party) would become just as large as the Dutch liberal party (VVD) which the MP had left in 2004. The VVD -- now with 21 seats in the Dutch Congress and 14 seats in its Senate - still is the largest opposition party of The Netherlands at the moment against the ruling left-wing Labour Party-Christian Democrats' coalition. See Wilders party information here Dutch supporters of Wilders say that the judicial decision provided proof that the long Dutch tradition of seperation of the State and the Judiciary was being rapidly eroded; that the judiciary is being heavily influenced by the financial forces behind the all-powerful pro-islamic middle-eastern oil lobby representing Royal Dutch Shell and similar powerful blocks. A total of 69% of the liberal voters said in this latest opinion poll that they could not understand why the public prosecutor was going to lodge criminal charges against Wilders at all. And 50% of these voters surveyed also disagreed with the decision, while 46% were in favour and the rest undecided. Clearly, Dutch society is split nearly down the middle; public opinion is very strong about this issue, they are either very firmly for, or against, and the undecided section is small. De Hond 's poll also suggests that Dutch voter support was bleeding away from both the opposition liberal party and the ruling coalition's Christian-Democrats in support of Wilders' party after this formal decision to prosecute him was made. Also surprising is that much of his new support also came from the Dutch working-class. Just like Pim Fortuyn A similar dramatic voters' shift was also seen towards the murdered Dutch politician Professor Pim Fortuyn, assassinated on 6 May 2002 in a Hilversum parking lot after a radio interview, only nine days before his party, the Lijst Pim Fortuyn, was expected to win with a large margin in the Congressional elections ("Tweede Kamer"). Fortuyn, a gifted public speaker with a powerful personal charisma and who, unlike most somberly-clad Dutch public figures, also was a much flashier, more smartly dressed individual. He also was openly homosexual and not religious. However, this Erasmus University professor in political science also was very critical of the islamisation of The Netherlands, warned that it was eroding the Dutch liberal traditions and democratic way of life, and the rights of Dutch women. He spoke up about it often in frequently outrageous media interviews and heated public debates. Fortuyn said in August 2001, as cited in the Rotterdam Dagblad, "I am all in favour of a cold war with the islam. I see it as an extraordinary threat, as an enemy to our society.' Various muslim organisations launched formal charges against Fortuyn about this statement, as they have also done against Wilders for similar statements. Fortuyn referred to mosques as 'covert infiltration organisations for the islamisation of The Netherlands: 'In the mosques, the martyrs are being created.' He also called Islam "a backward culture" -- and said that if his party won the election and it was legally possible, he 'would close the borders for Muslim immigrants.'] When he was gunned down by an animal-rights activist who was jailed for the murder, the Maurice de Hond polls showed him as an out-and-out winner - he would have become the next prime minister of The Netherlands with an overwhelming majority. - something which is almost never seen in The Netherlands which its many splinter parties. see Victimisation effect: Geert Wilders' party hasn't reached that stage as yet - however the public prosecutor's decision to charge him for speaking his mind against Islam, is having a strong 'victimisation effect' on all the Dutch voters from all the parties, many observers are warning. Maurice de Hond's poll noted that 15% of Wilders' new voters would come from the ruling coalition Christian Democrats - the party of the present prime minister, Jan-Peter Balkenende. It's also noticable that working-class men and women are increasingly supporting Wilders' viewpoints, and also showed a very low level of trust in their current government and the cabinet -- and that the majority wants The Netherlands to withdraw from the European Union. This voting block was also strongly represented among the Pim Fortuyn voters before his assassination.see [b]Dutch-[/b]language news report