.
Taking part in two cities it has become the largest party in Almere and the second largest in The Hague. (
Mr Wilders was visibly buoyed by the results and was characteristically combative saying this was the first step in the upcoming campaign for parliamentary elections.
“The national campaign begins today in Almere and The Hague, tomorrow in all of the Netherlands… On 9 June, we’ll conquer the Netherlands,” said Mr Wilders.
My comment:
[Labor Party PvdA of Wouter Bos took a beating for the city council elections, the Christian Democrats
CDA of JP Balkenende took a minor loss, although both parties should have done better at the local level.
A big loser was the Socialist Party SP of Agnes Kant nearly split in half, mainly due to their voters staying home.”]
More to follow …
(NRC) – The popularity of Wilders, who compares Islam to fascism and the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf, has dented the image of the Netherlands as a country that has often portrayed itself in the past as a bastion of tolerance.
In Almere, the PVV won 21 percent of the vote to Labour’s 18 percent, the preliminary results showed. In The Hague, the PVV had 8 seats — second to Labour with 10 seats. After counting 93 percent of the votes, experts put turnout in the local elections at 56 percent.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
