Geert Wilders's party comes in second in European Parliament elections
The UK Telegraph reports that the bold Dutch politician's party has made significant gains (via Hot Air Headlines):
The European Parliament elections had been widely expected to punish governments struggling to cope with the global economic crisis, and polls released by the ANP news agency and broadcaster NOS put the Right-wing Freedom Party on course to win four of the 25 Dutch seats in the parliament, after having none in the previous assembly. This put Mr Wilders' party second only to the ruling Christian Democrats, which got nearly 20 per cent of votes, according to the poll.It's clear that the electorate wants to send a message. I congratulate them for that.
Mr Wilders, who was banned from Britain by the Home Office because of his controversial views on Islam, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what has been perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800,000 Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.
Labels: Europe, islam, Netherlands