He was not shocked by the PVV's election win, says Mostafa Sadiqi (29), former director of a student association for Muslims. “Yes, it may be surprising for all those people in their GroenLinks bubble.” But in his own area he sees PVV members at the football club, and in the neighborhoods where they live, they have been living next to PVV voters for a long time. “We know their thinking and are already confronted with it.” So the fact that people think about Muslims the way the average PVV member does – that is not new to him.
What does scare him is that others let Wilders' party do its thing so much. Again this week. That BBB, NSC and VVD still plan to form a government with PVV members. “That only legitimizes them and their thinking.”
Chicken wings and mini pizzas
It is his analysis of the formation in The Hague. Mostafa Sadiqi attended a meeting organized by the Collective against Islamophobia & Discrimination in Amsterdam's Oranjekerk on Friday afternoon. There are about fifty people present, Muslims and non-Muslims. After the panel discussions and lectures, they hold an iftar together – the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan. In the kitchen, two women prepare chicken wings, mini pizzas and lentil soup.
The afternoon was organized in the week that it became clear from the report of informant Kim Putters that the PVV will further form with NSC, BBB and VVD. What do the people in the Oranjekerk think about this development?
Chairman Abdou Menebhi of the Collective against Islamophobia & Discrimination does not want to know much about Wilders's refrigerator. He also cannot imagine that the parties with whom the PVV is talking do not see that the plans will most likely be shelved again later. He calls them hypocrites. “Those discriminatory ideas are in his fiber, the others know that too. But for them it's about power.”
He is particularly disappointed in Pieter Omtzigt, the party leader of the New Social Contract. “A nice man, who did a good job bringing the Benefits Affair to light. The fact that he is now moving in the populist right direction is unexpected for me.”
Too little back cover
Sadiqi, former director of the student association, also looks at the left-wing parties. “They don't push back enough, they don't protect us enough, they don't provide enough backing.” But he is not just negative and wants to look beyond elections. “I have also seen promising developments in the field of discrimination in recent years: black lives matter has really changed the perception of discrimination. I notice that too.”
Banish Habieb (24) and Rafiq Fatehmahomed (27), both in white jubbah with prayer caps, are not that worried about the PVV's participation in government. They are sober about it, they say, and think that Wilders' extreme right-wing ideas will never be feasible. “He will always have to work together,” says Fatehmahomed. “Now also, with NSC, BBB and VVD.”
Habieb understands the PVV voters, he says. “I'm in their class. When I ask them why they voted PVV, they say it is because they cannot find a house, because the Netherlands keeps letting in migrants.” Habieb understands that, he has also been looking for a house for a long time. “I always try to understand people and engage in conversation. So that they can also see in me: you are a human being.”
Ultimately, says lawyer Elsa van de Loo, deputy member of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, the danger with this formation lies in the normalization of the PVV's ideas. The refrigerator is no problem for Wilders, she says. The bills were not feasible, he knew that. “But by placing these bills so far out of order, we are all shifting our thinking.”
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