Wilders can say whatever he likes

Here we go again. Another controversial Geert Wilders speech is going to hang over the coalition talks like a black cloud. The last one, at New York’s Ground Zero, didn’t turn into a storm but will the next one rain on the CDA congress?, asks Yvonne Doorduyn in the Volkskrant.


On 2 October, PVV leader Geert Wilders will be travelling to Berlin to lend moral support to his German fellow anti-islam politician René Stadtkewitz. But hang on a moment, isn’t that when the CDA is having its make or break congress?
On Twitter Wilders announced that his speech would be about ‘Islam as a dangerous totalitarian ideology’. Former Berlin representative Stadtkewitz, who was thrown out of the CDU a week ago, has decided to form his own party which he has named Freedom.
The politician has been criticised for his right wing contacts for some time. As a board member of an organisation called Citizen’s movement Pax Europa, Stadtkewitz protested against the building of a mosque in Berlin. His invitation to Wilders also caused a few raised eyebrows. Most Islam critics in Germany don’t want anything to do with Wilders’ PVV.
Wilders will not just talk in Berlin, he is also going to show his controversial film Fitna. In 2008 the film caused a furore and saw foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen and Wilders taking up position in opposite camps. Verhagen feared the film would lead to violence against Dutch embassy personnel in muslim countries.
The coalition partners are not saying much this time around. VVD-leader Mark Rutte – who is aiming for a VVD-CDA minority cabinet with PVV support – hasn’t said anything at all. ‘We are not going to comment on every speech Wilders decides to make. Why should we, he doesn’t comment on ours’, his spokesperson said. Maxime Verhagen seems to be slightly more worried.’If Wilders says anything I don’t agree with I will let him know in no uncertain terms’, he declared.
In the run up to Wilders’ Ground Zero speech, Rutte and Verhagen both said they would distance themselves from anything ` untoward he might come out with. But it wouldn’t influence the coalition talks, they emphasised. The deal is that Wilders, in spite of his ties with a new cabinet, can continue to say whatever he likes. But if Wilders lets fly any more divisive one-lines about Islam, the VVD and CDA electorate may be less than happy.
The New York speech on 9/11 wasn’t so bad although Verhagen, as the caretaker foreign minister, felt he had to distance himself from what Wilders had said. The fact that Wilders took a relatively moderate stance in New York was taken by most commentators as a sign that Wilders wants the new cabinet to work.
This is an unofficial translation

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