News coverage of local elections in the Netherlands focuses on the gains made by right wing Freedom (PVV) Party. Led by controversial politician Geert Wilders, who is currently on trial for inciting hatred against Muslims, the party operates on an anti-immigration platform. It made major gains in the only two cities where it ran candidates,…
Dutch right wing, anti-immigration PVV (Freedom) Party stands to gain in local elections scheduled for March 3, 2010. A recent poll from TNS/NIPO projects that the party will win the city of Almere in the local elections, one of only two cities where the party will run. This as a result of the votes of…
Several candidates running in the Netherlands’ March 3 local elections have published campaign material in languages other than Dutch, sparking criticism from other campaigners. Turkish and Arabic-language election posters have appeared at various places in the country, as Labour (PvdA), the Christian democrats (CDA), centre-left D66, the Socialist Party (SP) and the leftwing Greens have…
Following a number of anti-Islamic comments in online forums, a politician for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the Bludenz district of west-Austrian state of Vorarlberg has been removed from the local electoral list. Karl Mayrhofer had written that Islam was a “degenerate and depraved ideology,” which cost him both his party membership as…
Henny Kreeft, leader of the Dutch Muslim Party (NMP), announced Monday that the party will contest upcoming local council elections in Venlo, hometown of politician Geert Wilders. The vote, to be held November 18, 2009, is the result of redrawing council boundaries. Four candidates – two with a Moroccan, one with a Turkish and one…
