“The sluice gates are wide open,” Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders says in a campaign video that shows planes landing in Holland as women in headscarves outnumber natives in shopping street scenes. “Every day we are confronted with mass immigration: headscarves, burqas, minarets, social security dependence, crime … it never ends,” Wilders laments as dramatic music plays in the background of the clip released ahead of June 9 parliamentary elections. Whole neighborhoods are being Islamized.”

Pollsters expect Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), to double its strength from nine to 18 MPs in the 150 seat parliament on a ticket of halting the “Islamic invasion” – enough to make it a potential ruling coalition candidate.

“Wilders exerts a big influence on these elections,” political analyst Martin Rosema of Twente University told AFP. Wilders’ bold move onto the shaky ground of multi-cultural tolerance, for long a matter of Dutch pride, “has prompted other parties to adopt a stricter approach to security and the integration of Muslims,” said Rosema.

Agence France-Presse, 6 June 2010

Update:  See also “Poll favourite may put anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders in Cabinet”, Times, 7 June 2010