Right-winger gains popularity in Netherlands, says poll
AMSTERDAM, Nov 21: A right-wing politician without a party is more popular with Dutch voters than the ruling party as the traditionally liberal and tolerant Netherlands suffers a wave of sectarian violence.
Geert Wilders, who says he will found a party to clamp down on Muslim militants, would win 26 of the 150 seats in parliament if an election were held now, against 25 for Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's Christian Democrats (CDA), according to a poll published on Sunday by the ANP news agency.
This month's murder of Theo Van Gogh, who had directed a film about violence against Muslim women, has heightened ethnic tension in the Netherlands and led to a series of tit-for-tat arson attacks against mosques and churches.
Around 10 per cent of the Dutch population are defined as "non-western" foreigners - many of them Muslim Moroccans and Turks. Alongside an increase in racist violence, demands have grown in recent years that more must be done to integrate them into Dutch society.
The poll by the Maurice de Hond group had all three coalition parties - the CDA, the VVD free-market liberals and the centrist D66 - losing support since the 2003 election. The opposition Labour party (PvdA) topped the poll with 52 seats.
Wilders is a member of parliament who was forced out of the VVD for refusing to back Turkey's bid to join the EU. He says Islam is incompatible with democracy and wants new curbs on immigration, particularly from Turkey and Morocco. -Reuters
