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Geert Wilders switches from hating Muslims to E.Europeans

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Loz
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 06 Dec 2009, 23:17
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Post 24 Mar 2012, 23:10
Geert Wilders switches from hating Muslims to E.Europeans

Quote:
Dutch website causes stir in Central Europe

Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has launched a website, inviting people to denounce Polish, Romanian and Bulgarian nationals causing 'nuisance' to the country's society. Sofia, Bucharest and Warsaw reacted with outrage. The EurActiv network in Central Europe reports.

Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) has already gathered thousands of denunciations since it launched a website this week, asking Dutch citizens to report nuisance, pollution, problems related to housing or simply competition on the job market, caused by Europeans citizens coming from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

PVV is the third largest party in the Netherlands. In the formation of the current cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, PVV's active participation resulted in the adoption of a "support agreement" between itself and the three coalition parties.

Wilders’ party estimates that there are between 200,000 to 350,000 people from these countries living and working in the Netherlands.

“Are they causing you problems? Or did you lose your job to a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central of East European? We would love to hear from you,” reads the introductory statement on the website.

PVV says it has fought from the beginning against the opening of the labour market to Poland and other EU nationals. Polish citizens have full access to the labour market of the Netherlands, while as newer EU members, Bulgarians and Romanians, will have full access from 1 January 2014.

The websites says: "Do you have trouble with EU nationals? Or have you lost your job because of a Pole, Bulgarian, Romanian or other Central or Eastern European? We would like to hear. The Freedom Party has a platform on this website to report your troubles. We will check these complaints and submit the results to the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment."

The launching of the site has stirred considerable emotion in the three countries mentioned. A spokesman from the Polish Embassy in the Netherlands said Wilders’ depiction of Polish workers as “polluting the Dutch job market” was insulting.

The Embassy lodged a complaint about the site, but the Dutch ombudsman said he does not intend to consider the complaint because the actions of political parties do not fall within his competence.

In Romania, the Foreign Ministry asked its embassy in The Hague to express strong disagreement and to request the country's authorities to take appropriate action, "in view of its discriminatory character, which violates European values".

Vessela Cherneva, spokeswoman for the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, said her country cannot accept that one of the founding members of the EU is tolerating incitement to hatred, discrimination and xenophobia, in contradiction of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Cherneva also asked the Dutch cabinet to differentiate itself from the party's initiative and undertake "the necessary measures".

Asked to comment, Matthew Newman, spokesperson of Commission Vice President Viviane Reding, responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, said the EU executive was aware of the case and was going to publish its position.


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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 27 Apr 2007, 18:04
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Komsomol
Post 25 Mar 2012, 09:35
Old news. He didn't switch btw, he now hates Muslims and Eastern Europeans. There's this dutch-polish rapper who made a similar site asking people to share all their good experiences with Eastern Europeans, pretty awesome. The site has also weakened the government as there is one guy from the PVV who left the party because of it; so hopefully this all leads to the fall of our right-wing cabinet.
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Post 26 Mar 2012, 08:54
It's not a switch, but I do think he's milked the anti-Islamic cow for all it's worth. Just like his previous proposal of a "head-rag tax" (a tax on women wearing the veil, yes really), it earned him widespread condemnation in the press, but it certainly didn't hurt him in the polls.

What did hurt in the polls was the power struggle with Brinkman, one of the other MPs of his party, who ended up leaving the party while keeping his seat. Brinkman wanted a more "democratic" party structure that everyone could join (instead of just a parliamentary group based on Wilders's leadership), including a youth wing. After 6 years of being in the PVV, Brinkman also came to the conclusion that the PVV stigmatises certain groups too much.


Like the PVV, Brinkman will keep supporting the government in principle, but you never know for sure. So now the government is also sucking up to the tiny orthodox protestant party SGP to be guaranteed a majority. So this "minority cabinet/majority support" construction is becoming increasingly silly. If they are going to depend on the SGP, this will probably mean the maintenance of the (redundant) blasphemy law, no expansion of Sunday shopping, and other concessions on things that the vast majority of the country disagrees with the SGP on. What a wonderful country!
Loz
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Post 26 Mar 2012, 10:29
I fully support the ban on Sunday shopping though.
In Yugoslavia at least no store worked on Sunday, it was a very respected day.
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Post 27 Mar 2012, 18:17
There are two aspects to that discussion: the religious aspect and the workers' rights aspects. This is an area in which socialist and christian parties have often marched together in parliament. Probably the fairest solution here would be to not ban Sunday shopping (certainly not for religious reasons anyway), but to still keep some kind of secular "special status" for Sundays so that you don't suddenly add a 7th working day for regular pay, effectively abolishing the idea that workers should have one resting day per week.

This of course adds the problem that small businesses will find it much harder to open op on Sunday, especially when they have to pay more. So it's not perfect and it's a rather difficult issue. The Christian parties don't give a damn though, they just want to make sure that everyone lives by their standards.
Loz
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Post 27 Mar 2012, 19:04
So, what's with E.Europeans in the Netherlands anyway?
Why are people hating them so much (besides the usual "they took our jobs" story...)?
I read that there are only like 100k E.Europeans in the country of over 15 million.
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 27 Apr 2007, 18:04
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Post 27 Mar 2012, 20:51
Well, since (especially Polish) Eastern European workers have to do shitty jobs for a low pay, they drink a lot, and some Dutch people think they have a monopoly on walking the streets drunk. Anyway, I think it's just a distraction from the real problem. I have Polish people living above me and I can say I've never had any trouble with them, they're very kind to me and they seem to be working all the time. Wilders just needs to exploit reactionary feelings and when Muslims don't work that well anymore, it's off to another people.
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Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 22 Oct 2004, 15:15
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Post 27 Mar 2012, 22:11
Loz wrote:
So, what's with E.Europeans in the Netherlands anyway?
Why are people hating them so much (besides the usual "they took our jobs" story...)?
I read that there are only like 100k E.Europeans in the country of over 15 million.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=768h3Tz4Qik

Or: "unfair competition" and "extreme liberalisation" as the Socialist Party already euphemistically called it when they made a similar website 7 years back without much controversy. But at least they really did only target the economic implications, and they warned against polarisation instead of encouraging it.

Anyway, they're also often linked to organised crime, drunkenness and problems related to integration and housing (squatting a house and completely fragging up the neighbourhood, that kind of stuff). I wouldn't know anything about it though. I've literally never met a Central or Eastern European guest worker before. Every once in a while, you read a report about one of the above things, but I'm fairly certain that there are more pressing social problems. But like with the agitation against Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, it's just another way of scoring some cheap votes from people who have (indirectly) experienced these problems. But then again, I've never had a problem with a Turk or a Moroccan in my life either.

On the slightly longer term, the true problem is of course that we've got this "European integration" between countries which are radically different from each other in terms of wages on one hand, and living expenses on the other. If I were a Polish or Romanian worker with little to no prospects, I know what I'd do as well. But why do something concrete about that when you can just rant and rave about them instead?

The whole thing is getting a bit embarrassing for the government parties though. At home, the Prime Minister can simply put on a smile and say that party political decisions are not his problem, even if his government happens to depend on that party; in Europe, they don't care for such nuances: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch ... ird-degree

It used to be that the Netherlands considered itself a "guiding country" in terms of progressiveness, with an almost too arrogant leftish moralism. Now, on the international scale, this government has relegated us to the level of some Hungarian elected dictator who happily meddles with the independent press and judiciary: a naughty schoolboy who has to answer for his actions. At least Orbán actually went and addressed the European Parliament, but I don't think Rutte is going to go to Canossa any time soon. Pretty embarrassing stuff.
Loz
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Post 27 Mar 2012, 23:39
Well, IMO there's nothing wrong with deporting a number of troublemakers back to Poland (or any other country).
If they don't want to behave properly according to Dutch rules, they should be sent back to where they came from.
It will do good for the rest of Polish immigrants' community.

Just an anecdote. In 70s Yugoslavia schooled a lot of Lybian pilots, who were a bit wild. When Gadaffi came to visit them, the local commander complained that they're misbehaving. Gadaffi then smacked the leader of the group and threatened to have them deported back home immediately.
After that episode the Yugoslavs had no more complaints about young Lybians.

GDR also didn't tolerate immigrants misbehaving, from what i heard.

Deporting the most prominent troublemakers will be a step towards solving the issues with xenophobia which seem to be dividing the workings class of Netherlands.
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Post 28 Mar 2012, 22:30
Well of course, Yugoslavia and Libya could be seen as exchange between fraternal Non-Aligned nations. With the Netherlands and Poland, it's not quite like that.


Anyway, looks like our government construction is not long for this world: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... story.html

Funnily enough, Wilders might actually be the one to put all the austerity plans on hold for the near future.
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Post 29 Mar 2012, 17:54
I for one don't sympathise with Western racists. That Frag Wilders should die.

Troublemakers? It is the Dutch burgeoise that is the troublemakers. And people in Central and Eastern Europe are not brutish simpletons. The average person in Moldova has gone through the same amount of years of school as the average Frenchman. On the other hand, almost half people in the US think evolution is false. Loz, stop being a fragging uncle Sam and idealizing German and Western European culture.

Let's make a website where people can write down the effects of Western capitalist influence on their countries. I am sure it will include more than walking drunken on the street.

Hope Geert Wilders dies of fragging cancer.
Loz
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Post 29 Mar 2012, 19:21
Quote:
And people in Central and Eastern Europe are not brutish simpletons.

Yes, tell me all about it, as if i weren't from EE.


Quote:
The average person in Moldova has gone through the same amount of years of school as the average Frenchman. On the other hand, almost half people in the US think evolution is false.

That's not the point, and i don't see how is this relevant to what i said. Although i agree with you.

Quote:
Loz, stop being a fragging uncle Sam and idealizing German and Western European culture.

I'm not idealizing anything, i'm just being objective.
Compare "my" or Polish culture with the German one.

Quote:
I am sure it will include more than walking drunken on the street.

That's irrelevant. But what about organized crime, drugs and so on?
Balkan emigrants "made a name for themselves" in the 90s when they came to Scandianavian countries and simply raped their "system" (for example, before 1990s Norwegians didn't even know what illegal building was, or that someone would take more than 1 pair of newspapers from the machine, and so on and so on...)
IMO, these countries could have freely deported these troublemakers.
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