• Login
  • Search:

Sat, May 25 2013

Editorial: Damning the Dutch

Fri, Feb 17 2012 08:59 CET byClive Leviev-Sawyer, Editor-in-Chief 8179 Views
For someone who claims to be standing up for his country, Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders has a strange way of going about it.

In setting up a website for Dutch people to complain about immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe, Wilders has taken, much as his kind tend to do, the short-sighted route of populist intolerance.

Bashing Eastern Europeans is hardly news; as noted in a recent report by The Sofia Echo, it is a popular pastime among sections of the British press. Tawdry newspapers pandering to prejudices, however, have less to lose than a European Union member state as it seeks to negotiate on issues within the bloc for which it will require support from Eastern EU countries.

Sensible media in the Netherlands have pointed out the economic gains for the country from the presence on the labour market of people from Central and Eastern Europe. But then, sense can hardly be expected from the same myopic people who hold hostage the prospect of Bulgaria and Romania entering the Schengen zone, deliberately muddying that issue.

Sensible people in Central and Eastern Europe, of course, will not confuse Wilders and his ilk with the tradition of tolerance of which the Dutch justly can be proud (on a historical note, one that dates back as far as the time of the Huguenot refugees). No one of reason will damn the Dutch; certainly not in the way that people like Wilders do.

  • Print
  • Send via email
  • Translate to
  • Share:

To post comments, please, Login or Register.


Please read the The Sofia Echo forum comments policy.

Dutch keep Bulgaria, Romania in Schengen waiting room

The two Schengen zone aspirants have a ‘roadmap’ but the issue has been postponed again, to the EU justice and home affairs council in September 2012.

Bulgarian community protests in The Hague against PVV website

The rally, announced on February 14, was expected to gather Bulgarian students and workers in front of the Dutch parliament in The Hague.

More in this category

Editorial: Give and take

Resentment on the part of ordinary Bulgarians on the basis of the perception that those on the public payroll are skimming off the cream by paying themselves lavish bonuses would be quite understandable.

Editorial: Out of pocket

A dialogue is needed about how civil society responds in terms of gathering money and goods to help those in need.

Editorial: Stormy weather

The performance of the Government in actual delivery of assistance – money and equipment – and in aiding recovery in the coming months must be kept under the most careful scrutiny.

Editorial: Gauging pressure

Debate should be democratic, indeed, but it also should be rational and factual.

Editorial: Policing the police

In police work, bad tip-offs happen; who knows what the police were expecting? But that is no excuse for excessive use of force.

© 2000-2013, Sofia Echo Media Ltd.

Web Design by RIZN

Sofia Echo Media is part of the Economedia Group.
The news and information content on this website is provided by our editorial team and is copyrighted. Any unauthorised reproduction or use of it is strictly forbidden. Reproduction of this website's content is permitted only with prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief, should be propertly acredited and provide an active link back to our site. Comments posted by the website's visitors are independent of the editorial materials and do not represent the views of sofiaecho.com. Sofia Echo Media cannot be held responsible for the statements contained in visitor comments. The percentаge change in the shares' prices are based on the price of the last transaction of the current session compared to the price of the last transaction of the previous session. Bulgarian Stock Exchange data is not real-time, but updated every 15 minutes, and should not be used as a basis for decisions about buying or selling stock options.