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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (12406)	3/7/2002 3:06:24 PM
From: Machaon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

<< More on Afghanistan, the Soviets and America: >> I was wondering if you could find more inane items, in your search thru the Internet for misinformation propaganda. Congratulations! Not that anyone, in the right mind, would want to read your postings. <g> Hey guy. Are you a Grassofascist, or is the name similarity just a coincidence? <g>

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (12406)	3/8/2002 6:33:05 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23908

Updating Europe's Judeofascist roll-call.... Thursday, 7 March, 2002, 13:18 GMT Pim Fortuyn: The far-right Dutch maverick By BBC News Online's Clare Murphy Pim Fortuyn's fortunes are on the rise. In February, the maverick anti-Islam politician was sacked as leader of his own party, Livable Netherlands, after overstepping the mark with calls to scrap a constitutional clause banning discrimination. But the controversy has, if anything, enhanced Mr Fortuyn's reputation. He has just won around one-third of the votes after standing as a candidate in municipal elections in the country's second largest city of Rotterdam. And as the Netherlands looks to general elections in May, everything suggests that Mr Fortuyn and the list of candidates he plans to put forward could pick up enough seats in the country's 150-seat parliament to become a significant political force in their own right - and could even enter the government. His anti-Muslim views, calls for an end to all immigration and pledges to come down hard on crime have hit a chord with voters despite the country's proud reputation for liberalism and religious tolerance that stretches back to the 16th Century. Sexual politics Mr Fortuyn is openly gay, distinguishing him from the bulk of Europe's far-right, traditionalist politicians. He uses his sexuality as fuel for his fire against Islam, which - as many other religions - does not accept homosexuality. Islam, he says, is a "backward culture", a view which he has expounded at length in a book "Against the Islamisation of our Culture". About 800,000 Muslims, mainly of Moroccan and Turkish descent, live in the Netherlands, accounting for around 5% of the population. The majority live in the country's two largest cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Mr Fortuyn wants significantly to reduce the number of immigrants and asylum seekers who arrive in the Netherlands each year from a current 40,000 people to just 10,000 people "in no time at all". "This is a full country," he says. "I think 16 million Dutchmen are about enough". Copycat Mr Fortuyn appears to have a particularly strong appeal amongst the young. Nearly one half of 18-30 year-olds recently polled want to see zero Muslim immigration, and said they would be voting for Mr Fortuyn in May's ballots. Even those who do not intend to vote for him say he has a certain attraction. "He is the only politician who admits that there are problems with the multiculturalism of Dutch society and has stopped the issue of immigration being a taboo subject in politics," said Judith, a teacher, who lives in Maastricht. "I won't vote for him, because I don't think he is a serious politician, but that does not mean I don't think he has a point." Analysts say Mr Fortuyn has not only found support among voters who would traditionally veer to the far-right, but also among those fed up with the existing political landscape and centre-left government. "Dutch politics is dominated by multi-party coalitions and too many bland compromises," said Andre Krouwel, professor of political science at the Free University of Amsterdam. "Mr Fortuyn is a wake-up call for Dutch leaders. There is a large section of the electorate who don't feel represented on the national stage and are looking for a more radical answer to their problems." But immigrant organisations are increasingly worried about the kinds of lessons that politicians will draw from the example of Mr Fortuyn. "The real problem is that other political parties are starting to see Mr Fortuyn's strategy as a vote winner and may start to follow suit," said Edgar van Lokven of the Amsterdam Centre for Foreigners. "Mr Fortuyn takes peoples' discontent and fears and erroneously links them with immigration and foreigners. Unfortunately some people fall for it." news.bbc.co.uk Putin, Berlusconi, Pasqua, Le Pen, Dewinter, Haider,... who's next?