Dutch far right grows
Dutch polls suggest the far-right ticket will double its vote in the March 15 election, riding perceptions that many years of Muslim immigration threatens to erode Dutch national identity.
Despite statistics showing there are fewer foreigners in the Netherlands than commonly believed, many voters feel Muslim immigrants are failing to integrate and running down a once-generous health and welfare system.
Even if firebrand nationalist leader Geert Wilders does not enter the next ruling coalition given the refusal of “establishment” parties to work with him, he has managed to push the mainstream political agenda to the anti-immigrant right.
In the northern coastal town of Groningen, dozens of mainly Muslim men and women - Africans, Arabs and some Iranians – sit at bare tables and chat quietly in the living quarters fashioned out of a ship where hospital patients were once treated.
They are awaiting decisions on appeals of government rejections of their asylum applications, a process that has dragged on for years during which the Netherlands began to crack down hard on economic migrants. Groningen opened its “Bed, Bath, Bread” (BBB) facility for 100 asylum seekers in January after the government of conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte cut off funding, and it plans to expand capacity to 300 people later this year.
About 30 other Dutch cities and towns run BBB shelters too. They accommodate thousands of asylum seekers in legal limbo.
Rutte's government, has under the populist pressure of Wilders imposed some of the toughest immigration policies in the European Union since 2012.
It has cut off funding for BBB facilities and shortened the period of shelter for failed applicants to 28 says unless they agree to leave and stay in semi-detention prior to deportation.
The government has also expanded the list of “safe” countries to which rejected migrants can be legally returned and outlawed the wearing in public of face veils by Muslim women.
The nationalist current changing Dutch politics reflects a deep souring of public attitudes towards immigrants in a country long known for liberalism and multicultural tolerance, rooted in centuries of maritime history.
The welcome showered on hundreds of thousands of Moroccan and Turkish workers a few decades ago has turned to resentment at open-door, pro-EU policies under mainstream parties that may drive 20 percent of voters into the PVV's arms at the polls next week.
That could make Wilders' party the biggest in parliament, though it is still unlikely to enter government as all its mainstream rivals have vowed to ostracise the PVV.
Groningen and other municipalities decided to pay for migrant shelters themselves after talks with Rutte's cabinet about funding the BBB programme collapsed.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, accused mainstream parties of not standing up to populists ahead of elections in the Netherlands, Germany and France, but instead adopting their policies for short-term political gain.
Such criticism has not swayed Rutte's conservatives. He published an open letter in January, weeks before election campaigning began, telling immigrants to accept Dutch values and blend in or go home.
Immigrants reacted with consternation and anger in social media posts. A poll last month found that 40% of Turks and Moroccans, there for decades no longer feel at home in the Netherlands.
NAMPA/REUTERS
Even if firebrand nationalist leader Geert Wilders does not enter the next ruling coalition given the refusal of “establishment” parties to work with him, he has managed to push the mainstream political agenda to the anti-immigrant right.
In the northern coastal town of Groningen, dozens of mainly Muslim men and women - Africans, Arabs and some Iranians – sit at bare tables and chat quietly in the living quarters fashioned out of a ship where hospital patients were once treated.
They are awaiting decisions on appeals of government rejections of their asylum applications, a process that has dragged on for years during which the Netherlands began to crack down hard on economic migrants. Groningen opened its “Bed, Bath, Bread” (BBB) facility for 100 asylum seekers in January after the government of conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte cut off funding, and it plans to expand capacity to 300 people later this year.
About 30 other Dutch cities and towns run BBB shelters too. They accommodate thousands of asylum seekers in legal limbo.
Rutte's government, has under the populist pressure of Wilders imposed some of the toughest immigration policies in the European Union since 2012.
It has cut off funding for BBB facilities and shortened the period of shelter for failed applicants to 28 says unless they agree to leave and stay in semi-detention prior to deportation.
The government has also expanded the list of “safe” countries to which rejected migrants can be legally returned and outlawed the wearing in public of face veils by Muslim women.
The nationalist current changing Dutch politics reflects a deep souring of public attitudes towards immigrants in a country long known for liberalism and multicultural tolerance, rooted in centuries of maritime history.
The welcome showered on hundreds of thousands of Moroccan and Turkish workers a few decades ago has turned to resentment at open-door, pro-EU policies under mainstream parties that may drive 20 percent of voters into the PVV's arms at the polls next week.
That could make Wilders' party the biggest in parliament, though it is still unlikely to enter government as all its mainstream rivals have vowed to ostracise the PVV.
Groningen and other municipalities decided to pay for migrant shelters themselves after talks with Rutte's cabinet about funding the BBB programme collapsed.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, accused mainstream parties of not standing up to populists ahead of elections in the Netherlands, Germany and France, but instead adopting their policies for short-term political gain.
Such criticism has not swayed Rutte's conservatives. He published an open letter in January, weeks before election campaigning began, telling immigrants to accept Dutch values and blend in or go home.
Immigrants reacted with consternation and anger in social media posts. A poll last month found that 40% of Turks and Moroccans, there for decades no longer feel at home in the Netherlands.
NAMPA/REUTERS
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