You would not believe it of a conservative, neoliberal party like the VVD, but sometimes they still show a glimmer of common sense: they have announced that they will vote against the plans of Justice minister Donner to criminalise any “glorification” of terrorism. Which means that this proposal is effectively dead.
Which is good news for those of us who value freedom of speech. We don’t need more dubious laws to deal with a terrorist threat which, upcoming anniversary of the murder of Theo van Gogh notwithstanding is largely imaginary. You don’t stop terrorists by criminalising a class of free speech; you stop them with good police work –true, not something our “bromsnorren” are good at, but still.
Things can still change of course. The various coalition partners do have a nasty habit of taking
principled stands when they can score points easily only to fold at the crunch, when it really matters.
We’ll see.