Last week, Geert Wilders of the extreme right political party PVV freaked the nation out* with his ‘minder, minder, minder’ (‘less, less, less’) after the local government elections, on the question whether there should be more or less Moroccans in the Netherlands. After that he said: “We will arrange that or That will be arranged?.” Twitter exploded, Facebook, websites and TV followed. Wilders was even compared with Joseph Goebbels and his crazy rhetoric. He had gone too far.
Two people left their PVV seat in parliament. In Almere, where PVV was voted as the biggest local party, eight of the nine elected people dissociated themselves from Wilders his action. The chairman of the parliament said in unusual clear terms that it was ‘walgelijk’ what Geert Wilders did, which resembles a combination of ‘disgusting’ and ‘sickening’. The head editor of TV channel RTL4 Pieter Klein stated that Wilders had gone too far. Bold, because a lot PVV voters probably watch this popular channel.
I feel enlightened. To vote for Geert Wilders is not an action of courage anymore, or a sign that ‘it’ in the Netherlands ‘has gone too far’ (the unspecified reason for voting Wilders that took the blood under my nails), but it is shameful and makes you look stupid. And to set up a coalition – which previously happened – is finally really inconceivable. As it always was, off course, but now it is not just said by smart foreigners or green socialists.
Next to the normal commotion I saw as well a commotion which I can summarize in the next two lines: “How come you are so late?” and “Where were you, the last four years?” For example, Francisco van Jole, head editor of the public opinion blog ‘JOOP’, blamed RTL 4 for giving Wilders a stage before stating that they’re were against him. With a complete transcript of what RTL 4 has done wrong two days before his statement.
Also on Twitter, the people who took the effort to set up against him before last week, posted frustrated Tweets. “Didn’t I tell you? Why now, why this?” Like they are an early adaptor in hating Geert Wilders.
Well, well. I can tell you one thing: that’s not working. It makes people feel ashamed that they are a bit late, or didn’t tweet before that. Or, worse: that it might look like as if they were as late as ‘the rest’, so they don’t post their upset reactions anymore. Or, the worst: that we are only discussing why we are so late to disqualify Wilders in the first place.
We don’t have time for that. First, we have to get to the concensus that Wilders his serious role in politics is done, create the general opinion that Wilders is not a suitable leader for the Netherlands – instead of eliding it. We have to play this game before discussing it. No time for snobbyness.
*I took some linguistic freedom of using Dutchisms in this post
