Rita Verdonk’s populist party Trots op Nederland (proud of the Netherlands) is to contest the March local elections in 38 places, the former immigration minister announced on Sunday.

And TON, which takes a hard line on immigration, will offer a direct challenge to Geert Wilders’ PVV in the two cities where the anti-Islam party is taking part – the Hague and Almere.
TON will also field candidates in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Tilburg, Maastricht and many other places, including Verdonk’s home town of Pijnacker-Nootdorp. Rotterdam is not on the list. Like Wilders, Verdonk said she had failed to find enough suitable candidates.
Verdonk was immigration minister for the free market Liberals VVD between 2003 and 2007. She left the party after a bitter leadership dispute with Mark Rutte and is now an independent MP.
In early local elections last year, TON took two seats in the new local authority area of Zuidplas.