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Wilders launches campaign bid to 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS | Fri Feb 17, 2017 | 6:05pm EST
Wilders launches campaign bid to 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands
By Thomas Escritt | AMSTERDAM
Geert Wilders kicks off his election campaign on Saturday, promising to ban Muslim immigration and close all the mosques in the Netherlands, hoping a global upsurge in populism will propel him to power.
Security will be tight at the launch as the politician - who has lived in hiding since the 2004 murder by an Islamist of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh - will make a rare public walkabout.
"I want us in government," Wilders said earlier this week, promising to "de-Islamise" the Netherlands with policies that echo, and go further than, those of U.S. President Donald Trump.
His Freedom Party leads in polls with 17 percent, but the pro-business liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte are barely a percentage point behind, having closed the gap on Wilders by matching some of his anti-immigration rhetoric and getting an electoral boost from a surging economy.
But even if he does win, Wilders would struggle to form a government ...
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Wilders launches campaign bid to 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands
By Thomas Escritt | AMSTERDAM
Geert Wilders kicks off his election campaign on Saturday, promising to ban Muslim immigration and close all the mosques in the Netherlands, hoping a global upsurge in populism will propel him to power.
Security will be tight at the launch as the politician - who has lived in hiding since the 2004 murder by an Islamist of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh - will make a rare public walkabout.
"I want us in government," Wilders said earlier this week, promising to "de-Islamise" the Netherlands with policies that echo, and go further than, those of U.S. President Donald Trump.
His Freedom Party leads in polls with 17 percent, but the pro-business liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte are barely a percentage point behind, having closed the gap on Wilders by matching some of his anti-immigration rhetoric and getting an electoral boost from a surging economy.
But even if he does win, Wilders would struggle to form a government ...
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-election-campaign-idUSKBN15W2GT