The political party of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which is leading polls ahead of parliamentary elections in March next year, has promised in its manifesto to close mosques and “ban the Koran.”
“All mosques and Islamic schools closed, a ban on the Koran,” the document outlining the electoral program of the Freedom Party (PVV) said.
The document was posted on Wilders’ Twitter feed on Thursday.
The PVV says it will reverse the “Islamization” of the country with a range of measures, including closing the borders, shutting asylum seeker centers, banning migrants from Islamic countries and stopping Muslim women from wearing headscarfs in public.
On the back of Europe’s migrant crisis, opinion polls have for months given Wilders’ PVV the edge over the coalition parties of the Labor Party and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy led by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Late last year, polls predicted soaring support for the PVV, saying that the party could gain as many as 38 seats in the 150-seat parliament.
However, that number has slipped back.
A poll from Ipsos this month gave it 28 seats — still way up on the 12 it currently has.
The immigrant crisis has polarized the Netherlands, a nation of 17 million people, leading to heated debate.
Wilders, who is to go on trial in October on charges of inciting racial hatred, also said he would do all he could to hold a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the EU, despite an unsuccessful first attempt in June following Britain’s vote to end its membership of the EU.
His party has also pledged to put an end to foreign aid and to increase funding for police and security.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was