Potholes on the road to a new government

Trials and tribulations

Dutch politicians of the right-liberals (VVD), Christian-Democrats (CDA) and Freedom Party (PVV) have been on the road to forming a minority cabinet for the fourth week now. And if noises coming from behind the scenes are any indication it is not going well. On a TV news show Knevel en van den Brink the Chairman of the CDA, Mr. Bleker stated that the CDA - VVD coalition has to "bind" or "reconcile" all groups in society. This can be taken as an insistence to continue the policy of mulling over differences between (Muslim) immigrants and ethnic Dutch.

Wilders' reaction

PVV-leader Geert Wilders (Dutch) reacted with a personal attack on Mr. Bleker on Twitter (Dutch). Mr. Bleker is "whinger" according to him. What he means is that the CDA is committing the fault of the Dutch. Which is "to offer too little and to ask too much".

The next steps

The expectation is still that there will be a convenant for government (regeeraccoord) by next week. And if there is a convenant it will be put up for approval by a congress. And the congress is expected to approve the convenant.

The heart of the matter is the nature of Islam

Mr. Bleker and his CDA collegues are pretending that the sole problem could be the inclusiveness or exclusiveness of the ethnic Dutch. They are completely ignoring the point of view of Islam and its adherents. It is Islam which is excluding non-Muslims. It is Islam which states that all societies should be brought under Sharia law. And that all other points of view are wrong. Yes, the PVV policy is one of political exclusion of Islam as a political ideology. This is an essential exclusion if the nature of a Western society is to be maintained. The values of the West and Islam are mutually exclusive.

The use of the CDA

The sooner the membership and leadership of the CDA starts understanding this, the sooner they can do a service to Dutch society. And it is my impression that the rank and file understands this better than the leadership of the Christian-Democrats.