For two decades, Dutch politician Geert Wilders has had to live under tight security due to his criticism of Islamic immigration into the country. The threats continue, and it appears that recently, he has received 66 new threats. The below article in the conservative Dutch outlet, Dagelijkse Standaard, sharply criticizes the Public Prosecutor's Office for its apparent unwillingness to follow up on the most recent threats. The article is translated by Fousesquawk.
Public Prosecution leaves Geert Wilders in the cold: 66 death threats are just shoved aside
August 11, 2023 at 17:00
Is the Public Prosecutors Office still credible? In a shocking revelation, the Public Prosecutor's Office has simply decided to do nothing with the 66 death threats directed at Geert Wilders. Yes, you read it right. Sixty-six death threats. To be clear, we are not dealing here with a random citizen, but with a prominent member of Parliament. It is simply scandalous how easily the Public Prosecutor ignores this case.
Posting from @Het_OM: They do NOTHING about the 66 death threats and warnings of attacks against me from abroad because (chance of) a successful prosecution is limited, and "they want to use the scarce investigative capacity for other threat cases". Nice job that OM.
-Geert Wilders, August 11, 2023
Wilders, obviously furious, gave his unvarnished opinion on "X": "Posting from the Public Prosecutor: They do nothing with the 66 death threats and warnings of attacks against me from abroad." As the reason, they prefer to use the 'scarce investigative capacity' for something else. Well, who had thought that the security of a member of Parliament wouldn't be high on their list of priorities?"
Now the question arises: Would the Public Prosecutor have handled it like this had the death threats been directed against, say, Sigrid Kaag or Jesse Klaver? The answer is easy to guess. Then the media would have been on it for weeks and left no stone unturned to track down and prosecute the perpetrators. But it seems that there is a different standard for Wilders in the eyes of our "impartial" judiciary.
This is not just a blunder by the Public Prosecutor, it is an outright mockery of our judicial system. If Wilders can't feel safe, who can? The Public Prosecutor has clearly shown that it is partisan, and makes its choices on the basis of political preferences. That cannot be allowed in a constitutional state like ours!
It seems like the Public Prosecutor has a blind spot for the well-being of right-wing conservative politicians. And if that is the case, what does that say about the rest of their work? Trust in our justice institutions is undermined by such actions.
The Dutch people deserve better than this. Wilders deserves better than this. It is high time that the Public Prosecutor gets its affairs in order and do its work without political bias. But let's be honest: Do you really expect that will happen under the present establishment? We didn't think so. It is clearly time for change.
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Fousesquawk comment: Given the country's history with political assassinations in recent years (Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn, and Peter R. de Vries), one would expect the government to take the Wilders threats very seriously. The criminal (Moroccan Mafia) and Islamic terrorist threats in the Netherlands are very real.
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