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More bad news for those US leftists considering the allegedly liberal Netherlands as their reserve bolthole now Canada’s gone wingnut. Here’s Radio Netherlands on the witch-hunt being orchestrated by far-rightist Geert Wilders against former 80s activists now in Dutch mainstream politics:
What did you do in the 1980s? That question has cost one Dutch member of parliament his job, and led one party to bring a motion of no-confidence in a government minister. Here in the Netherlands, the 1980s was a time of economic crisis and of social activism, particularly in the housing rights and anti-nuclear movements. Now a number of Dutch politicians are being called to account for their alleged activities, or support for activities, dating from that period.
Accused of activist past: Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer
Resigned: former MP for GreenLeft, Wijnand Duyvendak
Geert Wilders’ right-wing Freedom Party has spearheaded the accusations.
[…]
Of course the other parties are loving it, and are even rubbing salt in:
The opposition Liberal (VVD) and Freedom (PVV) Parties say that Minister Cramer should have to cover the costs of the investigation she has ordered into her alleged support for the radical paper Bluf in 1986. At that time the paper published documents concerning nuclear electricity plants which had been stolen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
They cause her to call the investigation and make her pay? WTF? As Radio Netherlands puts it, this is just
Settling scores
Why are so many leftists being accused of supporting violence, two decades later? Ever since the popularity of Pim Fortuyn earlier this decade, the right wing in the Netherlands has enjoyed new clout. The current drive to hold politicians accountable for their activist pasts feels like settling scores.
As if to get out in front of what one MP called a new form of McCarthyism (the anti-communist witchhunt in the US of the 1950s), Christian Union MP Kees van der Staaij said, only half joking, that his party has a clean slate:
“More and more names are coming forward of politicians with an activist past. In our caucus meeting this morning, we all looked one another deep in the eyes and came to the conclusion that not one of us are guilty of such a past, whether it was on the right or on the left.”
A noble attempt to stay out of the limelight. But in such an embittered atmosphere, what you did in the 1980s can still come back to haunt you.
Note the weasel words – ‘such a past’. Trans: “We may have been naughty, but at least we’re not political criminals…”
What I don’t get is that whilst Wilders and his supporters themselves are promoting hatred right now and there’s plenty of wrongdoing going on as I type, you wouldn’t know it from the Dutch press and broadcast media, who seem deeply scared of Wilders despite his utter ridiculousness. They are cowed into submission by that mythical Dutch committment to the freedom to hate free speech. I say ‘mythical’ because speech here is only free when it’s offensive to minorities; criticise the Dutch themselves, invite a barrage of abuse.
Then there’s the unspoken part of the normen en warden*; the right not to be embarassed if you’re important. I bet there’s a few unpleasantness-hiding rocks that Groep Wilders wouldn’t want turned over by the media, but I suspect there’s even more of those slimy rocks in the Dutch media, which is about as tiny and incestuous as you’d expect. As for the politicians… we’ve learned over and over from Karl Rove and the Republicans, nothing succeeds like projection. Why are Dutch liberals and conservatives so intent onlooking for the motes in others’ eyes? So they don’t see their own planks .
In truth Wilders, with his seemingly suicidal bid to make as many political enemies as possible, is doing the work of a corrupt (though certainly nowhere near the British or American scale) Dutch politico-legal establishment for it, eliminating potential thorns in the side without anyone actually important having to lift a well-manicured finger or have their own reputation or integrity besmirched. He’s just another pawn, a useful idiot, despite his grandiose self-image and political vanity.
Ironically even the neonazis can’t stand him:
Meanwhile, Dutch Neo-Nazis are criticizing Wilders for his neo-conservatism. Wilders’ “casino capitalism” will “make the rich richer and the poor poorer and will only exacerbate the problems of the multicultural society,” the website of the far-right Dutch People’s Union (NVU) writes. While the Neo-Nazis expect that Wilders’ PVV will win up to 30 seats in the next elections they call the politician “dangerous,” emphasizing that he is “a friend of Israel.”
Wilders isn’t your classic neofascist, which makes him all the more dangerous: like McCarthy he is the voice of petty bourgeois resentment against the so-called educated elites; more of Rush Limbaugh than a David Duke, but no less dangerous for that. Wait till Wilders and crew, drunk with power, turn their fire on members of the VVD and PPV. Maybe then they’ll realise what a monster they’ve helped create – but by then it’ll be too late.
[*“Normen en waarden” is frequently used in Dutch politics and media as one single concept. In general “normen en waarden” stands for manners and moral principles that should be used in public, social, inter-human traffic. The concept of “normen en waarden” was first introduced in Dutch politics in July 2002 by the first government led by prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende, in that time often mockingly called “Harry Potter”. Since then, a public debate has started (and is still going on), and “normen en waarden” is seen as an important political subject.” Dutch Word Of The Day]
