Freedom Party undermines its reputation

Hero Brinkman the police officer and politician

One of the rising stars in the 9 man Freedom Party (PVV) parliamentary fraction is Hero Brinkman. Mr. Hero Brinkman is a Saxon Dutchman from the town of Almelo. He was a hardline police officer in Amsterdam for many years and a harsh critic of the Labour dominated politicians there. He was an effective enemy of the squatters and drug dealers.



The Dutch Antilles and Mr. Brinkman

He joined the PVV when it was founded in 2005. After the elections he became a MP. One of his specialties is Home Affairs. Mr. Brinkman puts special emphasis on the relations with the remaining parts of the Dutch empire. The Dutch Antilles. These are six islands in the Caribbean, three of which are not far from the coast of Venezuela. The Islands have deeply corrupt governments. Also they send their underclass to The Netherlands, where they are infamous for their very high gun related crime.

Sell them to Venezuela

The PVV policy with regards to the Antilles is that they should become independent or as Geert Wilders puts it rethorically: "sold to Venezuela". This policy is popular with the Dutch population who are becoming wary of subsidizing the Dutch Antilles and being unable to stem immigration of Antillians to The Netherlands. Mr. Brinkman's language towards the Antilles has been very harsh and it has given him a lot of profile amongst the Dutch voters. As a result he is the second man within the PVV after Mr. Geert Wilders. This has also given a certain independence, which is unusual within the PVV.

Mr. Brinkman has used this independence to fraternize with Dutch parliamentary journalists in Nieuwpoort, a club in Dutch Parliament for MPs and journalists, against Wilders' stricture against socializing with the uniformly leftleaning journos. Everything that happens at Nieuwpoort is strictly confidential and all remarks made there are of the cuff. This is called the "Nieuwpoort code". Last week Mr. Brinkman got drunk in Nieuwpoort. When a bartender refused to serve a drink to him, Mr. Brinkman went behind the bar and served himself. There was also a scuffle with the bartender. Next day, despite the "Nieuwpoort code" this damaging fact became news on TV and the newspapers. It was alleged that he had hit the bartender.

Wilders takes the situation in hand

Mr. Wilders acted quickly. Mr. Hero Brinkman had to publish a statement that he had a drinking problem and was working on it. He denied having hit the bartender and apologized for the scuffle. Potentially this could have been very damaging to the PVV. In the event the quick action by Mr. Geert Wilders kept the damage limited. It showed that he had been right about the rule not to fraternize with journos as the "Nieuwpoort code" was suddenly not in effect when a PVV MP made a slip.

Recent opinion polls show that the electoral damage to the PVV is limited to a drop from 28 to 27 seats in the 150 seat Parliament. The other parties were not able to take advantage of the PVV kerfuffle.