Dutch director killed by islamist fanatic!

[freek]

This ruined the election night for me. I was looking forward to that night, but I wasn't anymore after this awful event happened.

Mr Van Gogh (Vincent van Gogh was the brother of his grandfather by the way) just finished a film about the murder on Pim Fortuyn, 2 years ago (who was shot by an extreme environmentalist btw, and not a muslim). He really admired Fortuyn.

His killer butchered him like a pig. He shot him first, Mr Van Gogh asked for mercy, but the man cut his throat and stuck the knives he had used in Van Goghs chest. On one of the knives he put a note with a text in Arabic on it. It is said that the AIVD (Dutch CIA) already knew the killer because he was a friend of a muslim extremist who was arrested for preparing a terrorist attack.

Thank God there were no riots last night, like there were when Fortuyn was murdered. Only in The Hague 35 people were arrested for shouting extreme-rightwing texts, but they were all released again today.

A horrific photograph of Van Goghs corpse can be seen on http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/15290181/Moordenaar_Van_Gogh_mogelijk_moslimextremist.html

[freek]

Walloon (is there two "o"'s or one? I always forget) parties run in Wallonia.

Two o's in English, one in French.

[freek]

The only country in EU where parties can be banned is Germany (because of their history)

In the Netherlands the extreme rightwing party CP'86 was banned in 1998.

[freek]

Banning of far right parties (or far left parties) is a bas idea. As long as they don't break any law they should have right to exist.

The problem with the Vlaams Blok is that they DID break the Belgian anti-racism law.

[freek]

This is getting embarrasing ;-) Why was it banned? (besides from being neo-nazi)

The CP'86-party was the most extreme rightwing party ever to have won seats in Dutch elections, although only in municipal elections, 4 seats in 1990 and 9 in 1994. It resulted from a split in the CP (Centre Party), which won a seat in the Dutch Second Chamber in 1982. The more moderate members of the CP continued in the Centre Democrats (CD), which was quite successful in the period 1989-1996 in the elections. The extremist members of the CP united in CP'86.

Demonstrations organized by CP'86 always ended in riots. It was quite a typical neo-nazi party.

A number of prominent members of the party were prosecuted for racism and for urging on the use of violence against foreigners. In the end the leaders of the party were convicted for being "members of a criminal organisation", so the party was seen as being criminal. With this, it was easy to ban it.

However, at the time the party was banned, almost nothing was left of it. Extreme rightwing parties in the Netherlands are famous for splintering. CP'86 was no exception.
In fact, the CP'86 was the third party to have been banned in the Netherlands, in 1894 a socialist/communist party was banned and after WWII the Dutch national socialist party.

At the moment there is no strong extreme rightwing party anymore. The strongest party in that area at the moment is the NieuwRechts (NewRight) party, whose leader was kicked out of the Pim Fortuyn List, because he has ties with the Vlaams Blok. Its program may be compared with the new program of the Vlaams Blok. In the European elections of this year, they didn't score very well, only 15,000 votes (0.3%).

[freek]

Mea culpa!

Actually, the party leader murdered was Pim Fortuyn of the Netherlands  on May 6, 2002.

His murderer is eligible for parole in 2014.

No, he is released om May 6, 2014. He got an 18-year sentence (which is extremely long for a single murder committed by someone without a criminal record). In the Netherlands, a prisoner is released after twothirds of his sentence.

[freek]

Regardless, like I said, Vlaams Belong is not anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish. They just aren't run by Jews.

Vlaams Blok tried to win the Jewish votes during the last elections, in 2003 and 2004. They were especially active in Antwerpen, which has a large (orthodox) Jewish community. The Blok had some success with this, at the time of the elections there were tensions between jews and muslims in Antwerpen, and the Blok was (and is) more anti-muslim than anti-jewish.

[freek]

I have also pointed out that the intimidation is not limited to banning parties, but includes fineing those who engage in politically incorrect speech or writing (re: Bridget Bardot) and handing out lenient sentences to those who murder leaders of 'politically incorrect' parties (the Dutch example I previously cited). 

About the lenient sentences in the Netherlands: Mr Van der Graaf received an 18-year sentence for murder. That is extremely high for a single murder, committed by someone without a criminal record, and with a low chance of repeat. The court gave a higher sentence than usual because a politician was murdered. Normally, a single murder would result in a 12 year sentence.

Although the maximum sentence in the Netherlands is life imprisonment, this has only been used very sparsely, and only for multiple murders.

[freek]

Ah, but Freek, the murderer will be released in 2014, as the sentences are pretty meaningless since early release is the norm.

That's right. Maybe the sentence looks low in your eyes. But he is sentenced by a Dutch court, and he did not receive a lenient sentence  in Dutch eyes.

[freek]

I can remember some friends of mine who lived in the Netherlands at the time, and they reported that many of the supporters of the murdered party leader where very angry with the sentence, while the local lefties were celebrating  the sentence.

Not really celebrating, but they agreed with the court. Fortuyn's supporters would have considered any sentence lower than the death penalty (performed in the most cruel way possible) as lenient.