The tulip fields around Keukenhof, south of Amsterdam, are one of Holland’s most famous tourist attractions. Especially in this time of the year. Winter is over and has finally given way to Spring. From the sky, air travellers can watch a rich tapestry of colours reaching almost to Schiphol Airport.
The freshness of Spring can be noticed not just in the tulip fields, but also in the corridors of Dutch politics. There, since March 15, the day of our general elections, the Patriot Spring is in full bloom.
Of the 28 parties participating in the Dutch general elections, 13 were able to gain seats in Parliament. My party, the Party for Freedom (PVV), did extremely well. We grew from 15 to 20 seats, becoming the second biggest party in the land. A truly historic achievement.
Equally significant is the fact that the parties favouring open door policies towards immigrants and asylum seekers lost the majority which they previously held.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government coalition of his own Liberal Party (VVD) and the Labour Party lost almost half of its seats. Labour was decimated, while Mr. Rutte’s Liberal Party fell from 41 to 33 seats.
He only managed to avoid an electoral disaster for the VVD by acting tough against Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the final days prior the elections.
Indeed, five days before the elections, he expelled a member of the Erdoğan cabinet from the Netherlands because she intended to campaign among Turkish immigrants in our country for the upcoming Turkish referendum. Doing so, Mr. Rutte secured the support of many of his conservative voters, who might otherwise have defected.
Once the elections were over, however, Mr. Rutte resumed his old habits. The most logical government coalition (and the one which could give the voters what they wanted) would be a coalition of the three largest parties – the Liberals, my PVV, and the Christian-Democrats – plus some smaller parties on the right.
Unfortunately, despite his tough posturing in the campaign, Mark Rutte has just started negotiations to form a government with… the far-left Green Left Party. This party is in favour of open door policies. Despite the fact that Islam has declared war on the West, the Green Left Party does not see it as a threat.
Neither does it seem to be worried by the fact that the African population is expected to quadruple from 1 billion to 4 billion by the end of the century and that many are eager to move north. No, according to the Green Left, climate change is the main danger.
Last week, ironically on the very day that an Islamic fanatic mowed down pedestrians with an SUV near the British Parliament in London, Mr. Rutte told the Dutch media that he refuses to form a new Dutch government coalition with me. The “main reason” for this, he explained, are my views on religion and Islam.
So what are my views? According to my party, now backed by almost 1.4 million Dutch voters, Islam, rather than being a religion, is primarily a dangerous totalitarian ideology aiming to submit the whole world to Allah. As such, it is an existential threat to our liberties, our democracy, and our civilisation.
If we want to survive as a free nation, it is adamant that we start to de-Islamise our societies before it is too late. And closing our doors to all immigrants from Islamic countries and resuming control over our own borders is the first step to do so.
While acting tough – once! – on Erdoğan, in the week before the elections, Mr. Rutte is clearly not prepared to see the danger of Islam. Not a single citizen in the West is still safe from Islamic terror and, yet, winners of the elections, such as me, are excluded from governing if they propose to start a de-Islamisation process. Surely, if the elites would oppose Islam with the same vehemence they are fighting us, many of the terror attacks could be avoided.
But, fortunately, as the growth of the PVV has shown, ever more people are realising what is at stake. The harder representatives of the current governing elites, such as Mr. Rutte, try to turn a blind eye to the Islamic danger, the harder the boomerang is going to hit them in future. We are the second biggest party in the country now.
If Mr. Rutte refuses to listen to the voters, we will next time be the largest party. And, then, we will follow the excellent example of the British, leave the EU, resume control over our own borders, and restore our national sovereignty, so that we can remain what we are: A nation of the Dutch, for the Dutch! No longer a province of a European moloch, but a nation once again!
As definitely as Spring will be followed by Summer, we are going to prevail and save our civilisation. And our colourful Dutch tulip fields, part of our national identity and our pride in this time of the year, bear witness to that!
Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in The Netherlands.