Geert Wilders, who is a likely contender to become prime minister when Dutch voters go to the polls next year, was on Friday convicted of inciting discrimination and of insulting a group for saying that the Netherlands would be safer with fewer Moroccans.
The three-member judiciary panel found that Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, breached Dutch law with his remarks on March 19, 2014, but it elected not to convict him of inciting hatred and it imposed no punishment, rejecting prosecutors’ request to fine him 5,000 euros (US$5,280).
Wilders was found to have violated laws on inciting discrimination and group offense when he led a crowd at a political rally at about the time of municipal elections in The Hague in chanting: “Fewer, fewer” to the question: “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?”
The court said Wilders was not guilty of hate-speech charges in connection with comments he made about Moroccans in a nationally broadcast TV program recorded at a public market a week before the rally.
The effect of the verdict on Wilders and on his party’s chances when the Dutch elections are held in March is unclear, but the trial seems to have improved his party’s standing, rather than diminishing it, among voters.
If the Party for Freedom wins the most seats in the elections, Wilders could become prime minister, and he would then have to form a coalition government with other parties.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, a year ago said that he would refuse to join such a coalition unless Wilders retracted his comments about Moroccans.
Rutte confirmed that sentiment at his weekly news conference on Friday, reports said.
Wilders, whose defense team said he would appeal the decision next week, was not present when the verdict was read by the chief judge, Hendrik Steenhuis, at a secured courtroom on a military base outside Amsterdam.
The site was chosen to protect Wilders, who has been under constant guard because of death threats related to a long history of inflammatory comments, as well as the judge and prosecutors.
“The most important thing is that he is found guilty of group insult and inciting discrimination,” said Frans Zonneveld, a spokesman for the public prosecution service. “For now, we’re very satisfied that he has been found guilty of these two charges.”
In their ruling, the judges said that Wilders’ comments at the rally had contributed to the further polarization of Dutch society by using “nationality as an ethnic designation” and that mutual respect was imperative in the “pluralistic” Netherlands.
“He said that he was supported by millions of people and therefore was not to blame of offending a group,” Steenhuis said. “It’s important to answer the question of whether he was guilty of this. That question is answered in our court system. We state that you cannot offend groups of people and discriminate against them.”
Wilders, who has taken a page out of the US president-elect’s playbook — he adopted the campaign slogan “Make the Netherlands Great Again” and attended the Republican convention in the US — has repeatedly made vitriolic and inflammatory remarks about Islam, the Koran, immigrants and Dutch minority groups. Since the US presidential election, the Party for Freedom has been surging in the polls.
“I still cannot believe it, but I have just been convicted because I asked a question about Moroccans,” Wilders said in a video that was posted online.
“The Netherlands have become a sick country,” he added. “I have a message for the judges who convicted me: You have restricted the freedom of speech of millions of Dutch and hence convicted everyone. No one trusts you anymore.”
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