Reply With QuoteI'm shocked. Who would have guessed a populist virtually one man band of a political party would implode......shocked I tells ya.
Geert Wilders' Freedom Party sees more strife, two MP's leave the party.
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/tw...E2%80%99-partyDutch Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders is facing a mutiny just hours after his party programme for the upcoming general elections was made public. Parliament members Marcial Hernandez and Wim Kortenoeven have announced they will leave Wilders’ PVV immediately.
“I thought I had found my captain, but I was wrong. Geert deserted me,” Hernandez said at a press conference, referring to Wilders’ decision to break off budget talks with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his minority cabinet earlier this year. Until now, rumours that Wilders had failed to consult his fellow party members about the move could not be confirmed.
Voting fodder
The desertions by Hernandez and Kortenoeven appear to have been sparked off by the contents of the defense clause in the PVV party programme released this morning. The programme states that the Netherlands must cancel its plans to purchase the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), reduce its fleet of F-16s, and put Dutch economic interests first in general defence policy, reducing Dutch participation in peacekeeping missions by half.
“As a Freedom Party MP, you’re seen as voting fodder,” Hernandez said.
Speaking to the website nu.nl, Geert Wilders said the election programme was unanimously approved by the PVV bloc in parliament. But MP Marcial Hernandez said he and his fellow party members were given only half an hour to study a draft version two weeks ago.
Good-for-nothing
The other PVV deserter, Wim Kortenoeven, was clearly emotional during the press conference according to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. He said “we were increasingly facing humiliation. Wilders had contempt for normal social behaviour and was inaccessible to members of his bloc in parliament.” Kortenoeven said this had become a widespread problem “except for those who are part of the politburo.”
“Wilders is a political good-for-nothing,” Kortenoeven added.
Open disagreement
The PVV party programme for elections this coming autumn also calls for the Netherlands to leave the European Union and stop paying any contributions to Brussels.
Earlier this year, PVV parliamentarian Hero Brinkman left the party in an open disagreement about the party’s direction. This was followed by more desertions from the party at provincial level in North Holland.
Speaking to NOS radio, Wilders called today’s announcements “sad.”
More infighting, and more allegations similar to those Wilders' former right-hand man Hero Brinkman made public before leaving the party earlier this year..Hernandez is hardly a public personality with an unblemished track recod, but his accusations of Fleur Agema and Wilders recarding the scraping of the entire RNLAF are very serious indeed. I believe Hernandez, as a former Landmacht officer(got his red beret with 11 Air Assault Bde and was a major with the Regiment Medical Troops), served as the party's impromptu defence specialist, and as such would or should have been involved in party policy making regarding defence. I say impromptu because there is little publicly known about the party's inner functioning, something criticized by Brinkman as well, and if true, illustrated by Agema apparently carrying more authority than Hernandez considering military matters. This latest incident in what is by now becoming a long string of incidents around the party's hierarchy, finances, and policy only serves to illustrate that the party needs to become more open and democratic. Certainly, what was first viewed as a somewhat pro-military party is now revealed to have as much of a clue as to how to use the military as part of integrated government domestic and international policy as the rest of The Hague.
I'm shocked. Who would have guessed a populist virtually one man band of a political party would implode......shocked I tells ya.
Heh. ATM the PVV is capitalizing on the EU-skeptic mood in Dutch society, so who knows what september's elections will bring for them?Originally Posted by muttbutt
I hope it will bring them nothing, them and the Socialists. I don't even mind some of their immigration stances, but what kind of party includes in their program to reduce the flag of the EU with one star.
In my opinion these two were some of the more gifted types in the PVV. His group of loyalists will soon exist out of Fleur Agema, Martin Bosma and animal lover Dion Graus. Oh and Richard de Mos, funny character.
I'm not denying the mood in Dutch society....but a party that seems constantly on the verge of imploding, with personality clashes and members walking out constantly, might not get much of a boost.
Wim Kortenoeven, a staunch Zionist, has accused one of the PVV's MPs (Dion Graus) of anti-Semitism. He also claims Geert Wilders wantsTurkey to give up its territories on the western side of the Bosporus, lol.
Should have elected Gene Wilder.
The hell does this have to do with the topic of this thread? Also, you should be aware having multiple accounts is a bannable offense in and of itself
I'm sorry gents my stalker just went postal.
He won't be around long. I am pretty sure of it.
your life must be sad ^^
Dude, get out of this thread.
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