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Podcast Episode#1-Greece, France, the Netherlands and Why Populism is Winning With the Issue of Immigration.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35075439

This podcast takes a look into populism in the three countries of Greece, France and the Netherlands. Here we compare the three countries and tie together their similarities as well as the differences between them. We discuss the parties of the Golden Dawn, which is a dying populist party but has created a lot of noise in Greek history, the PVV led by Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and the FN led by Marie Le Pen of France. All three countries populist actors pay close attention to immigration as a point of debate as well as a talking point in order to gain popularity within their countries. We hope you enjoy our podcast!

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-safsel/podcast-episode-1-ppulism-in

Links to sources:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/910515/opinions-on-cartoon-contest-wilders-in-the-netherlands/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/world/europe/netherlands-election-muslims.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-trial-head-of-greek-far-right-party-alleges-conspiracy-against-him/

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/03/28/the-new-face-of-the-dutch-far-right-fvd-thierry-baudet-netherlands-pvv-geert-wilders/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/world/europe/geert-wilders-netherlands-freedom-party-moroccan-immigrants.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdcrP-5bDIk

https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01889832/document

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/07/world/europe/emmanuel-macron-france-election-marine-le-pen.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35075439

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26528673?casa_token=Vb4q4m3dxUkAAAAA:ApEkxolbbD_ga1wa_B2YQstEbjt9Qc9HLzP5SYXxJAjxPEi5LAFYCnImMStSign1CfIadptgMO98UZAZA7WTwLleZjViyGC8rGtyj5EKrBIvqY-jsQ&seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%C3%AFcit%C3%A9

https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/41598978/ElQadim_Deprivation_Spring2015.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_January_2015_attacks_and_the_debate.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20191030%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20191030T000732Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=91d00a09f062d96207ef5942395c2e16b21484192dffbf230ecc5b479cb5332e

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9248.00184

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-elections-latest-marine-le-pen-immigration-suspend-protect-france-borders-front-national-fn-a7689326.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38321401

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/10/02/world/social-issues-world/hundreds-migrants-protest-conditions-greek-isle-lesbos/#.XfAY6LaZO8V

Populism, A Very Short Introduction, Mudde C. and Kaltwasser R., Oxford University press 2017

https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/1606/20220.pdf;sequence=1

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A Political Landscape of The Netherlands

The Netherlands has a very interesting political history that has changed quite frequently over time. There have been shifts in control of the area that lead to where the country is now politically. Currently, we have seen how the country has shifted along with the creation of the populist party which has now close to three-fourths of the parliament seats within the Netherlands��� government.

Political Background

The country of the Netherlands was formally known as "the Republic of the United Netherlands" began its independent life as a republic in the 16thcenturywhen it “won its’ independence from Spain between 1568 to 1609 and became an independent state.” (The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica) However, this did not stop Spain from trying to reclaim the republic later on. In 1609 the creation of the Twelve Years Truce was created due to there being political controversy between the two main political leaders who arose after gaining independence from Spain, there was constant shifts in the political control of this now decentralized country “between the province of Holland and the Princes of Orange.”(The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica) This truce, however, did not help alleviate political controversy within the republic and created a divide amongst the two sides. After the Twelve-Year Truce, the Princes of Orange came to power in 1621 but were now weakened to a possible invasion by Spain which, like they believed would happen, began a war in 1621 and didn't enter peace negotiations with Spain until around the 1640’s. The Netherlands then witnessed a type of Golden Age between 1702-1713 where this republic served as a center for cultural changes as well as being a very influential small nation within Europe. (The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica)Time had passed with multiple small and fragmented occurrences that had taken place within this time, but around 1795 the Republic of the United Netherlands collapsed due to the after-effects of a Dutch democratic revolution alongside at the same time of an invading French army while the republics resources were exhausted from multiple long wars and navy was being neglected and not supported. This democratic revolution then paved a path for the creation of a new political system. In 1815, the Netherlands changed from a republic of smaller provinces into the unitary structure of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. This parliament has two types of chambers.There is the lower house and the senate. The lower house has 150 members and does things such as making amendments, approving budgets, starting inquiries and interpellation. Them the Senate has 75 members who are given the powers of approving and rejecting laws of the Netherlands without the right of amendment. The head of state is better known as the king and has the power can sign all laws that are approved by the parliament into the actual Netherland law.

William Alexanderis the current sitting king of the Netherlands after succeeding his mother who was the queen... These historical moments are important for the political concepts that the Netherlands uses today because it helps them decide upon how they were going to govern within their region.

The country has a tradition of Pillarization, which is the politico-denominational segregation of a society, or the separation of society into groups by religion and associated political beliefs. These societies are “vertically” divided into two or more groups known as pillars. Pillarization implies that there are close ties between political elites and the masses through networks of ideological organizations.

The Netherlands has remained an extremely liberal region. For example, The Netherlands became the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriage and euthanasia. This was between 2000 and 2002. So, politically this region has always been further on the liberally accepting side than other regions were earlier on. The Netherlands now has a four-party system that was introduced by Prime Minister Marke Rutteand this process of changing over to a four-party coalition took 225 days to put together the new government. This system continues to take place within the system of having a parliament and head of state.

Populist party

Party for Freedom or (PVV). The Party for Freedom or PVV was founded on February 22nd, 2006 and has gone from the fifth-largest party to becoming currently the second-largest party in parliament today. It surprisingly has 24 members sitting in the national parliament of The Netherlands.

This party had split away from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracyand transformed into what it is today.

The Netherlands’ main Populist party and is called the Party for Freedom, and its leader isGeert Wilders.Geert Wilders is considered to be for neo-conservatism and has a strong emphasis on protecting the “Western liberal value” of being against Islam. He is also very closely interested in coalition politics. Legally, the PVV is the name under which the foundation Geert Wildersoperates. To avoid the internal quarrels that are common in new political parties, Wilders has decided to restrict membership of the foundation to only one person, himself. A few proposals to 'democratize' the PVV has so far been rejected through the party. A few of the leaders in this party are Thom de Graaf the vice president of the council of the state within the PVV. The Senate leader of the populist party is Mariolein Faber. Then there’s the deputy prime ministers who are Hugo de Jonge, Kajsa Ollongreen, and Carola Schouten. The ideological stance that this populist party takes is that of Dutch Nationalism and right-wing populism, while also being anti-Islam and anti-immigration.  

©image/Zuma Press/J. Goodman

One of the challenges to a rights-based democracy with the Populist party that Geert Wilders leads is that people who are Muslim are being discriminated against by people within this party. An example of this was that in December, a court convicted Geert Wilders of inciting discrimination and insulting a racial group following remarks he made about Moroccans at a rally in 2014, but the court didn’t charge any kind of punishment. The court then acquitted Wilders of inciting hatred. Wilders has also discussed that he believes that anti-immigration laws primarily directed towards those who are Muslim, should be passed into law and begun to be implemented. The acts of inciting hate and violence against a specific group of people such as Muslims are what could cause a challenge to Netherland citizens and their rights. By having a populist party that has become so relevant but, has ideologies that exclude certain religious groups, can create some turmoil between those who are considered the minority group within the country. As a whole, the Netherlands has been known to be a very accepting country in its' history, so this stance being taken against specific minority groups seems to be contradicted by the stances of the PVV and their leader Geert Wilder.

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An Open Letter to the PVV

An Open Letter to The PVV and Geert Wilders

Daniel Safsel

22 Madbury Road

Durham, NH 03824

12/03/19

Dear Mr. Geert Wilders and other members of the Party for Freedom,

I write this letter today in response to the use of anti-Islamic rhetoric that is being used by you and your party and suggest that you should shift your topic of importance away from immigration and towards climate change. The Netherlands is facing a multitude of important issues that seem to be affecting the lives of many Dutch citizens. Two of these major issues that are big topics of discussion are immigration and climate change, but there seems to be a lack of focus on climate change, which is a uniting issue, and more on immigration, which is a more dividing issue amongst many Dutch citizens. In a time where hate speech is on the rise and action needs to be taken with climate change, the stance that you and the PVV are taking is one that is more dividing than any other, and you should be focusing on issues that will unite future generations who will be facing issues of climate change throughout their lifetimes. The Netherlands has faced many problems in the past that have dealt with issues of race, at its’ peak of this issue, the Netherlands were invaded by Nazi Germany during WWII in 1940, and this created a huge burden amongst the country alongside their Jewish citizens who were being persecuted. Besides this instance in Dutch history, the Netherlands has historically been a nation that is excepting and inclusive, and issues such as climate change would be more uniting to the Dutch people rather than the issue of ant-immigration, which may reflect poorly upon Dutch culture. Yes, there are issues with immigration not only in the Netherlands but around the world, however, this issue has many ways to be tackled in better ways than detention centers and travel bans.  If you were to shift the main threat of the Dutch people away from immigration and towards climate change, you and the PVV may gain a larger backing of support alongside the Dutch parliament and be able to win more votes in parliament come next election cycle, while also benefitting the Dutch people.      

Within many nations, there has always been some sort of struggle with the integration of minority groups into the majority of a country. Some claim that this incompatibility and weaker sense of national identity amongst minority groups intensify conflict between minority groups and non-minority groups. Incompatibility between these "in and out-groups" seems to add on to combine struggle within a nation. This has been reflected upon many of you and the PVV’s statements about immigration. However, immigration is inevitably not going to slow down. In fact, a study done by Hans Roodenburg, Rob Euwals and Harry ter Rele, reflects the current and future statistics of immigration into the Netherlands and shows that by 2050, the number of immigrants within the Netherlands, (both non-western and western) will have more than doubled, and that about one in five people living within the Netherlands will be a non-Western immigrant!So, the notion of banning certain minority groups such as non-western Muslims’ into the country and creating tension around these groupsseems to be a lost cause due to the statistic facts that an increase of non-western immigrant is imminent in the Netherlands, whereas creating a system to integrate and welcome non-western immigrants will create a culture of more acceptance and in the long scheme of things, benefit the ever-growing population of the Dutch people who call the Netherlands their home.

Climate change has many co0nsequences for the Netherland such as rising sea levels, heavier rainfalls, droughts, intense heat waves and new diseases such as dengue. To many people, climate change is most likely the most impeding threat to Dutch citizens as well as to humanity as a whole. According to studies done by NASA, global climate change is creating more intense shifts in weather than have ever been seen before. Scientists have concluded that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades largely because of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methanethat humans have been producing ever since the Industrial Age. This effect not only damages the earth and all living organisms but impedes the longevity of human life and without change, the human race will not be able to survive through the catastrophic changes that are beginning to occur today. Overall, multiple studies show that the damage caused by climate change will become more significant and damaging over time, and the Netherlands can lead a change in this environment. Action upon this issue must be taken and the Netherlands as a whole can become a leader on this issue. Already, Dutch citizens and the Netherlands government are trying to take steps to decrease the effects of climate change. The Netherlands is trying to increase renewable energy.An example of this is that there are the beginning phases of creating offshore wind energy stations that will provide clean and renewable energy to the Netherlands. Other ways that the Netherlands are combatting climate change is focusing on sustainable mobility, agriculture, and overall industries by incorporating cleaner alternatives that will ultimately help combat climate change. There is an entire action plan that has been laid out for Dutch citizens in combatting the common threat of Climate Change, and if the PVV were to support and build upon this plan with its' platform, it would be a sure-fire way to benefit the Country, benefit the world, and show that the PVV has what it takes to become a leader within the Netherlands and hold Dutch values close to them.

I believe that If you and your party were to change your viewpoints on immigration and began focusing on the issues of climate change, then I believe that you and your party will be able to gain stronger recognition within the Dutch political climate. Immigration will always be a topic of discussion but the issue of climate change is a common threat to the Netherlands and its’ people, so by tackling this threat and using your political platform you will be able to gain a larger amount of voters who will support your cause as well as make it easier to mobilize citizens to support your message of combating climate change.

Sincerely,

Daniel Safsel

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Media Landscape Brief

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/06/few-dutch-worried-about-fake-news-most-trust-the-media-survey-finds/

Within the Netherlands there are many working parts that make up the media. Like the U.S, the Netherlands has ties to almost all of the same types of communicative media that they have, such as books, newspapers, television, radio, the internet and social media platforms. Within this country, we can see the utilization of all these forms of media by political parties, which ranges from far right to far left views. According to medialandscapes.org, the media has the ability for information to pass on from one person to the next and is easy to do so because of the technological advancements that this country has gone through. Within the Netherlands we see the use of printed news, news broadcasted on television and news discussed on public broadcasting radio. Of these three, online news media has begun to become the more dominant form of news with public broadcast in a close second to this new form of digital news.  Jamie Bartlettclaims that the media most definitely changes the way we communicate and has an overall effect on politics.(Bartlett 100) Within the Netherlands, there has been a transition towards new media and away from older forms, which have allowed for a better overall flow of information from sources directly to the public.

With the rise of the internet, online media has slowly but surely become widely used by the majority of the Dutch population.With online streaming and the ability to post video segments on YouTube and Facebook, people have begun to shift away from the traditional use of television and newspapers to these now online ways of watching video and reading online articles. With this also comes the decline of printed media, although there is still a relatively decent amount of people reading printed news every day, it is slowly in decline. Because of online media becoming more substantial and utilized more than printed media, the Netherlands have seen waves of layoffs in these types of jobs dealing with print media. Alongside this, public broadcasting has seen its’ share in layoffs due to budget cuts because of similar reasons. Overall the Netherlands is seeing a decline in traditional forms of printed media and a rise in television and online media that has a better way of advertising on their forms of media.

           So far the status of the free press remains heavily protected by the government who supports a free press inside and outside their own country. The Netherlands have created a large legal agreement which also extends out to confidential sources that journalists may interview. Journalists in the Netherlands have also come together to create a union called the Federation of Journalistsin order to support and create a system where journalists can be protected under law and have the ability to pay for legal action when their rights are denied. In 2018 two crime reporters were granted full-time police protection as well as there being numerous threats made in the direction towards Journalists who are doing their job to report on issues of public importance.According to RSF.com (Reporters without borders), over half of all journalists have faced one or more types of threats throughout their reporting careers and this union creates a legal system of lawyers and fellow journalists which protect other journalists rights. The overwhelming majority of Dutch voters still favor a free press, which continues to contribute to their public knowledge.

           Today, journalists in the Netherlands have seen a rise of populist parties which has seemed to be a growing problem that challenges a free press. The populist party led by Geert Wilders tends to constantly question the legitimacy of journalists as well as calling for the resignation of and restriction of journalists who are doing their job to report on what is happening and uncover corruption. An issue that has been coming up specifically is when journalists address issues that have to do with the Netherlands national identity as well as immigration. When these topics are addressed, populists tend to try and intimidate these individuals through forms of online media. Since 2016, we have seen a global decline in the presses freedom due to the absence of a strong press freedom leadership in the United States, where before the election of Donald Trump, was a leader in having press be free to do journalistic work.  The continuation of the current administrations harsh treatment on the press creates a ripple effect where other countries press freedom will begin to see a decline globally.

           Tjitske Akkerman makes the claim that a popular press sympathizes with, but does not imply the support of,  populist parties rather than other parties.Populist parties tend to be exploiters of personalization, and through media platforms they tend to create bullying events that draw the attention of popular newspapers who pay more attention to controversial political leaders. This eventually helps these leaders such as Geert Wilders, gain a political presence and overall electoral breakthrough. Through online media sources such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other platforms such as these, the populist voice is able to be seen in a way that was once very difficult to do. Populist parties such as the PVVs’ leader Geert Wilders, posts on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to get out his messages of anti-immigration and connect with the “common people.” Through these forms of media, populism can begin to gain traction within the political contest, and like Jamie Bartlett claims in her academic article Populism, Social Media and Democratic Strain, “the challenge lies ultimately with other parties to respond. The more established parties have to change to survive: they will have to get used to a new type of membership that can be mobilized at election time.”(Bartlett J, 2014, pg. 110) Populist parties will continue to push their agenda and use media such as online platforms to push their agendas, but established parties must be able to identify these pushes and combat them by breaking down misinformation and informing the public about these matters. Media technology is everchanging and in order for people to stay informed they must continue to search for the truth through these sources of information.  

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The Connection Between Donald Trump & Geert Wilders

(Image made by Daniel Safsel & Matthew Chirichiello)

In the process of creating this collage, I wanted to connect the similarities that I saw between the populist leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, who is the radical-right and anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders, and the United States current president Donald Trump, whose political campaign embodied a certain divide within the American people. Both the United States and the Netherlands are in a predicament with deciding on laws and regulations that have to do with immigration. These two leaders embody specific characteristics that Mudde and Kaltwasser would state are creating the overall populist image, who are seen as strong and outspoken leaders who set themselves apart from other mainstream politicians and act seemingly authentic. (Mudde & Kaltwasser pgs. 76-78, 2017) Overall, these two leaders share similar qualities that make them effective populist leaders within their two different countries.

Currently at the Mexican borders, especially in El Paso Texas, we have seen the separation and caging of families that have been attempting to cross into the United States without legal documentation. In these detention camps, there is obvious overcrowding with unsanitary living conditions.  Trump has made strong claims about the immigrants trying to come across the border and has been known for saying, "When Mexico sends its' people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."Within the Netherlands, there are similar yet less intense detention centers, but with the rise of Geert Wilders populist party, attention of detaining non-Western immigrants such as those coming from Turkey or Morocco, has been heightened through  Wilders rhetoric of blaming Muslims for being part of the crime and welfare issues that the Netherlands deals with. Wilders has positioned himself and his party in a way that wants to close borders to non-Westerners (aka Muslims) while also closing places of Muslim practice within the EU. This ideology is similar to Trump's executive order of an anti-Muslim ban back in January of 2017, which later was blocked by federal courts claiming it was unconstitutional as well as being an abuse of presidential powers.These two similar acts had the potential to separate and disrupt current citizens of these two countries who were Muslim, as well as uniting those in favor of anti-immigration policies for their countries.

The connection that I wanted to draw from this collage reflects what some characteristics are of populist leaders that both Geert Wilders and Donald Trump, who has not come out publicly to state he has populist views but displays many characteristics that are similar to Geert Wilders’ type of populist performance. Mudde and Kaltwasser make the argument that populist leaders rise through the electoral systems of democracy. They also say how these populist leaders describe themselves and are seen as charismatic figures who connect not with the elites, but rather the “masses” or “pure people.”( Muddle & Kaltwasser pg.59, 2017) We have seen how Donald Trump has risen through the ranks of American democracy as an entrepreneurial outsider. By playing into the anti-immigration fear of the  Midwest American and working class, he was able to gain support from many people who shared this belief that immigrants are a threat to American culture, and through many other instances, he ended up winning the presidential election in 2016.During the 2016 election cycle, journalists noted that within the midwestern Rust Belt, Donald Trumpwas shown to have had strong support in their respective primaries and the overall election that led to Trump's overall victory. Christine J. Walley claims that Trump was able to foster hatred and divisiveness by working across ethnic, racial, gender, religiousand other boundaries that haven’t been crossed before and have ultimately shown a divide upon these issues in America.

Many have claimed that Geert Wilders is the “Donald Trump” of the Netherlands. He has for a long time considered himself a political outsider who has been creating a connection to “the people,” by holding an anti-Islamic stance, which he believes will better Dutch culture. Through climb through the Dutch democratic system, Wilders has gained popularity within the Dutch Parliament, and his party the PVV is gaining more and more seats within it. Currently, the PVV holds 20 seats within parliament and is the second-largest party within this system. Geert Wilder's stance on immigration policies are similar to what Trump wanted to do back in 2017 when he made an executive Muslim ban on anyone trying to enter the US that were from specifically Muslim countries. This, however, was overruled by the supreme court until the ban was later remodeled and passed in 2018. With the increase in attention on immigration issues in America and the increase in PVV members in parliament, the ability for the PVV to push anti-immigration ideology now has a larger platform to be heard as well as making it a talking point where other Dutch citizens may relate to.

Both America and the Netherlands have had a relatively excepting stance on immigration and asylum seekers in their past histories. Currently, we are seeing how these two leaders share a common idea that they can gain support by creating immigration issues, and by taking an anti-immigration stance, that seems to be connecting with the “common people.” Conavan describes populism as challenging the current system of beliefs and values of the establishment,(Conavan pg.3 1999) This similar belief of anti-immigration that Geert Wilders and Donald Trump share is challenging both American and Netherland values by claiming Islam and immigration as being a bigger problem than it may truly be.

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Growing populism in the Netherlands and Connection to Islam

https://www.canva.com/design/DADq7UkWT-0/-P4qZ5X3nWVMA4H2r65Sgw/view?utm_content=DADq7UkWT-0&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

In this brief infographic, I show you how we came to the main populist party today called the PVV as well as seeing the connection between populism and Islam, and how Muslim communities are being targeted by these populist leaders. In this infographic, you will see some numbers that describe the size of both populism in the Netherlands, as well as the size of the Muslim community. With this information, I have provided one can get a sense of the rising influence of populism and how the Muslim community is potentially going to be affected if the current state of populism continues to grow and flourish.

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Geert Wilders Cartoon Contest Analysis

On May 17th2018, the populist leader of the Party For Freedom, Geert Wilders, released an announcement that he was launching a drawing contest to depict the Prophet Muhammad. A belief by many Muslims, both Ahmadi and Sunni, believe that the depiction of the prophet is notprohibited, and is deeply offensive to those who practice the religion. The announcement of this contest led to many controversies and protests within the Netherlands amongst its' Muslim citizens and can be looked upon as an event that describes the tension between Muslim communities in the Netherlands and the Populist party led by Geert Wilders.

Wilders announced this contest to test the limits of free speech within the Netherlands. Alongside this, he was willing to use this contest as a way to try and show others that Islam is a threat, although he knew of the outrage that he was going to create with this contest. According to Khalil Yousuf, deputy director of communications for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, he believes that Wilder’s statements about Muslims can have damaging consequences due to him targeting Muslims as a specific enemy of the Dutch people.After direct threats to Wilders we made, Wilders announced to end the cartoon contest. Yousef also discusses how the clarification between free speech law is very important in a modern age and that speech such as this is made to offend and potentially incite violence.  Wilders later released a statement later on as to why he canceled the contest and states, “To avoid the risk of victims of Islamic violence, I have decided not to let the cartoon contest go ahead”. Before the cancellation of this contest, thousands of Islamists went to march towards Pakistan's capital to protest Wilders contest and speak out against how this was an attack on the Muslim religion.

Wilders is wildly known for his anti-Islamic rhetoric but did not fully start gaining attention to his views until the early 2000's when he broke away and formed the PVV. “In 1999, Wilders reportedly presented to parliament a large report on Islamic terrorism as well as weapons of mass destruction that were in the middle east.”With the beginning of his interest in how the Middle East and Islam were hurting the Dutch country, he began gaining support from those who aligned with his views. Such one person was Pim Fortuyn, whose ideology was heavily against the immigration of Islam into the Netherlands. Geert Wilders stated in an interview that he believed that the Middle East posed a great threat to the very stability of Europe and that with immigration to the EU will come immigration of Islam into the Netherlands.  

Just recently in the past month, Wilders has posted multiple cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad on his Instagram account. These posts have been marked by the media platform as sensitive content and you must click a specific "continue to view" button to view the images. Due to Islamic views about the depiction of Muhammad, Wilders is using this platform of social media to extend on what he believes is his freedom of speech. Yousef also claims that Wilders is packaging discrimination and hate speech as “free speech” and this can negatively impact those minorities being targeted, such as those who felt impacted by this cartoon contest. Wilder's will most likely continue to spread his "brand" of Islamophobia in order to create a frame of protecting Western values against a “backward and totalitarian Islam” that is taking hold in the Netherlands, whether that claim is true or not, he is continuing to run with this concept.

[danielsafsel123-blog]

Pim Fortuyn’s Shadow

In this political cartoon drawn above, I have depicted Geert Wilders speaking on a microphone while also in the shadow of another past political populist leader, Pim Fortuyn's grave. Within this political cartoon, I wanted to connect and show how there is a similarity between the two populists alongside how Pim Fortuyn's assassination fueled the fire for Geert Wilders to step in as today's populist party leader of the PVV. The two share many similarities with their outlooks on anti-immigration policies on Islam as well as populist tactics.

When Pim Fortuyn was still alive, he was known as the populist leader of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy. Fortuyn's campaign that he was running on back in 2002 before his assassination was a controversial one. Fortuyn focused his campaign on the idea of anti-immigration, especially as one that was against the Islamization of the Netherlands. On the debate stage. Fortuyn would verbally attack the countries growing Muslim population and, make claims that Islam was a backward culture that is hurting their nation. This was seen as a controversial campaign platform due in part to the Netherlands' long-standing history of being a very tolerant country. The Netherlands was the first country to “legalize gay marriages, regulate prostitution, control and approve euthanasia, and also allow for the use of over the counter sales of marijuana in locations called “coffee shops.”So, in a country that is much more tolerant than others and whose Muslim population only amounts to around six percent of the overall Dutch population, the campaign platform on anti-immigration may have been a bit out there, but did however gain support from many Dutch citizens. This was shown when in March of 2002, he and his party was able to win 35 percent of the vote in the local Rotterdam election, which, is a small city whose population has a majority of immigrants.

          Today, the leader of the Populist Party for Freedom or PVV for short, is Geert Wilders. In a sense, Geert has picked up where Pim Fortuyn’s’ campaign Has ended. Wilders promotes his party with strong anti-Islam and ant-immigration policies/ideas that he wishes to enforce. In the early 2000's Wilders did not attract many followers, but, after the assassination of Fortuyn, many of his followers found Wilders just as appealing. After forming the PVV he amassed a large following that includes many of those who liked the populist messages that Pim Fortuyn was spreading. As the sole member of the PVV, he is the primary spokesperson for the party, and by using forms of social media such as Twitter, he can spread his messages of anti-immigration. The two share many similarities as to be the "speakers of the people." Pim Fortuyn's' initial campaign that sought anti-immigration of Muslims has somewhat lit the fuel for Geert Wilders, who continues today to take steps within the PVV to try and push his anti-immigration agenda.

          When drawing this political cartoon, I began to think about the connections as to how both Geert Wilders and Pim Fortuyn use/used populist tactics to gain traction with their anti-immigration and anti-Islam views. Margret Conavan describes that through populism and its followers, there can be a strong sense of anti-institutions that seem to be attached. (Canovan pg. 10)This made me think about how these two populist leaders both derived their messages based on anti-immigration within a country that is known for its' tolerant and accepting history. Is it possible that there is beginning to be a stronger resentment of those who are Muslim immigrants within Dutch society? Perhaps this national identity of tolerance is beginning to be questioned and is what is adding to the fire of Wilder's populist party and its' strength within Dutch politics today.

[danielsafsel123-blog]

The PVV and Anti-Islamic Immigration

As of now, the populist party in the Netherlands led by Geert Wilders has begun to gain traction within politics and the party has pushed a large amount of rhetoric that is against immigration. The Netherland government has begun to make laws that deprive Muslim immigrants of the country as well as those trying to come in legally, of their rights. The Netherlands, once considered to be one of the most tolerant countries in the world, is slightly shifting in a way where a populist party is pushing Islamic immigration as a critical issue that needs to be fixed. Specifically, the immigration of non-western immigrants that are Muslim, are the people who are being targeted in this country. But why is this topic of Islamic immigration so important and how does it connect to the populist agenda?

Wilders (right) compared van Klaveren's (left) conversion to a 'vegetarian working in a slaughterhouse' [Martijn Beekman/AFP]

The debate over immigration in the Netherlands as a whole is primarily towards Islam and has been pushed by the rhetoric of Geert Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) and is the populist party currently in the Netherlands that is gaining traction within parliament. Geert Wilders has used derogatory language for years against Islam stating such as, “Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology, the ideology of a retarded culture. I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people.” In March of 2017, the Netherland government created two ant-terrorism laws. The first law gave administrative control measures of specific individuals who were potential threats such as travel bans and the restriction of movement and contact with other specific people. The other law created revoked dual citizenship of people who had traveled abroad and were suspected to have joined a radical group while abroad. These powers allow citizens with dual nationality as young as sixteen to have their passports stripped if they are thought to have joined or fought in a terrorist group while abroadare continually used by the Netherlands’ government. With these two new laws in place, the creation of a new law later in July gave surveillance powers to intelligence and security companies that threaten civilians' rights to freedom of expression, non-discrimination, and rights to privacy. According to amnesty.org, there are still some concerns as to upper-level intelligence companies sharing personal information in the Netherlands that would be specific to target human rights and government opponents. This concern aligns well with the issue of immigration in the Netherlands because this can give rise to discrimination against those who are of Islamic descent, as well as those who are Muslim within the country due to the rising shift of anti-Islamic rhetoric in the Netherlands.

           The groups that are directly affected by the continuing argument against immigration are non-western immigrants, particularly those who are Muslim. Currently, the official estimation of the Dutch population is quite small, coming in at a minuscule %6. By 2020, the estimated increase of the Muslim population is predicted to go up to just %6.9 percent throughout the Netherlands. So, in reality, the percentage of Muslim citizens is very low compared to other groups. As the populist leader, however, Geert Wilder has been leading the push against non-western immigrants in full force, with a pledge to “make the Netherlands ours again.” He has repeatedly vowed to end Muslim immigration as well as closing mosques within the Netherlands if he were elected prime minister back in 2014. However, Mark Rutte was elected over Wilders, but Wilders continues to speak out against Islamic immigration and has continued to push forward his populist agenda which favors nativist views that claim that Islam is causing Dutch problems. On the side of the populists, they believe that the country’s’ biggest problem is the Islamization of the Netherlands. Geert Wilders believes and has made the statement that it is an existential threat to the countries identity. Whereas, compared to the many others in the Netherlands, people believe that the Netherlands

           The reason why Muslim immigration and the way populist leader Geert Wilders relates to issues of media is because, through the media, Wilders alongside other populist members in the parliament can spread their ideas of anti-Islam in the Netherlands. Canavan states that populism is not just a reaction against power but can be used to speak for the “people.”(Canavan pg.4) With this idea, the populist party in the Netherlands is claiming that they are speaking on behalf of the Dutch people, and that it is better off for the Netherlands to not allow Islamic immigrants into their country. In an article written by Koen Damhuis, Koen discusses how there is still a large number of people within the Netherlands who continue to pride themselves in the Netherlands' long-time cultural openness and religious Tolerance. The spread of anti-Islamic rhetoric is amplified through media outlets and platforms where the populist party can spread its’ anti-Islamic rhetoric to millions of people. Moffitt states that populism now is in a time where our media technologies are in a “communicative abundance,”allowing for these populist ideas such as anti-immigration for Muslims to spread at astonishing speeds. (Moffitt pg. 70)

Islamic-immigration will continue to be a topic of discussion within the Netherlands as long as the populist party led by Geert Wilders continues to do so. Although the PVV has gained traction it is also recieving resistance by others in parliment, and the outright ban of Islamic immigration will definitely be challenged by other political leaders in the Netherlands who are pro immigration and stand on the beliefs of the Netherlands being an open and accepting country to immigrants.

[danielsafsel123-blog]

A Political Landscape of The Netherlands

The Netherlands has a very interesting political history that has changed quite frequently over time. There have been shifts in control of the area that lead to where the country is now politically. Currently, we have seen how the country has shifted along with the creation of the populist party which has now close to three-fourths of the parliament seats within the Netherlands’ government.

Political Background

The country of the Netherlands was formally know as “the Republic of the United Netherlands” began its independent life as a republic in the 16thcenturywhen it “won its’ independence from Spain between 1568 to 1609 and became an independent state.” (The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica) However, this did not stop Spain from trying to reclaim the republic later on. In 1609 the creation of the Twelve Years Truce was created due to there being political controversy between the two main political leaders who arose after gaining independence from Spain, there was constant shifts in the political control of this now decentralized country “between the province of Holland and the Princes of Orange.”(The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica) This truce however did not help alleviate political controversy within the republic and created a divide amongst the two sides. After the Twelve-Year Truce, the Princes of Orange came to power in 1621 but were now weakened to a possible invasion by Spain which, like they believed would happen, began a war in 1621 and didn’t enter peace negotiations with Spain until around the 1640’s. The Netherlands then witnessed a type of Golden Age between 1702-1713 where this republic served as center for cultural changes as well as being a very influential small nation within Europe. (The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica)Time had passed with multiple small and fragmented occurrences that had taken place within this time, but around 1795 the Republic of the United Netherlands collapsed due to the after effects of a Dutch democratic revolution alongside at the same time of an invading French army while the republics resources were exhausted from multiple long wars and navy was being neglected and not supported. This democratic revolution then paved a path for the creation of a new political system. In 1815, the Netherlands changed from a republic of smaller provinces into the unitary structure of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. This parliament has two types of chambers.There is the lower house and the senate. The lower house has 150 members and does things such as making amendments, approving budgets, starting inquiries and interpellation. Them the Senate has 75 members who are given the powers of approving and rejecting laws of the Netherlands without the right of amendment. The head of state is better known as the king and has the power can sign all laws that are approved by the parliament into the actual Netherland law.

William Alexanderis the current sitting king of the Netherlands after succeeding his mother who was the queen. . These historical moments are important for the political concepts that the Netherlands uses today because it helps them decide upon how they were going to govern within their region.

The country has a tradition of Pillarization, which is the politico-denominational segregation of a society, or the separation of society into groups by religion and associated political beliefs. These societies are “vertically” divided into two or more groups known as pillars. Pillarization implies that there are close ties between political elites and the masses through networks of ideological organizations.

The Netherlands has remained an extremely liberal region. For example, The Netherlands became the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriage and euthanasia. This was between 2000 and 2002. So, politically this region has always been further on the liberally accepting side than other regions were earlier on. The Netherlands now has a four-party system that was introduced by Prime Minister Marke Rutteand this process of changing over to a four-party coalition took 225 days to put together the new government. This system continues to take place within the system of having a parliament and head of state.

Populist party

Party for Freedom or (PVV). The Party for Freedom or PVV was founded on February 22nd, 2006 and has gone from the fifth-largest party to becoming currently the second-largest party in parliament today. It surprisingly has 24 members sitting in the national parliament of The Netherlands.

This party had split away from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracyand transformed into what it is today.

The Netherlands’ main Populist party and is called the Party for Freedom, and its leader is Geert Wilders.Geert Wilders is considered to be for neo-conservatism and has a strong emphasis on protecting the “Western liberal value” of being against Islam. He is also very closely interested in coalition politics. Legally, the PVV is the name under which the foundation Geert Wildersoperates. To avoid the internal quarrels that are common in new political parties, Wilders has decided to restrict membership of the foundation to only one person, himself. A few proposals to ‘democratize’ the PVV have so far been rejected through the party. A few of the leaders in this party is Thom de Graaf the vice president of the council of state within the PVV.The Senate leader of the populist party is Mariolein Faber. Then there’s the deputy prime ministers who are Hugo de Jonge, Kajsa Ollongreen, and Carola Schouten. The ideological stance that this populist party takes is that of Dutch Nationalism and right-wing populism, while also being anti-Islam and anti-immigration.  

©image/Zuma Press/J. Goodman

One of the challenges to a rights-based democracy with this Populist party is that people who are Muslim are being discriminated against by people within this party. An example of this was that in December, a court convicted Geert Wilders of inciting discrimination and insulting a racial group following remarks he made about Moroccans at a rally in 2014, but the court didn’t charge any kind of punishment. The court then acquitted Wilders of inciting hatred. These acts of inciting hate and violence against a specific group are what could cause a challenge to Netherland citizens and their rights. By having a populist party that has become so relevant but, has ideologies that exclude certain religious groups can create some turmoil between those who are considered outsiders. As a whole, the Netherlands has been known to be a very accepting country and so this stance being taken against specific minority groups seems to be contradicted by the stances of the PVV.

[danielsafsel123-blog]

Media Landscape Brief for the Netherlands

Below are a couple of important players within the media world in the Netherlands.

Social media: AGCS: Located in Amsterdam

a creative operations company that focuses on building display advertising for agencies and publishers. Their creative designers and developers have the expertise to develop advertising campaigns that align with their clients' marketing strategy. They write clean and creative code through their framework that is compliant with the specifications of any ad server, enabling their clients to adapt their solution anywhere they desire.

https://clutch.co/profile/agcs

DELTA (Dutch cable operator) cable provider in The Netherlands which provides cable T.V. Internet, and telephone services.

EQT Partners: A Swedish private equity group of 29 different funds within the EUR 61 billion in raised capital. Has a focus on industrial, consumer goods, technology, media,  telecommunications, and health care and services.  EQT took over cable operators Caiway and DELTA, which were two of the most dominant cable operators within The Netherlands.

https://www.eqtgroup.com

Public radio and TV face stiff competition from commercial stations. Viewers have access to a wide range of domestic and foreign channels, thanks mainly to one of the highest cable take-up rates in Europe. Every province has at least one local public TV channel. The three national public TV stations enjoy high audience shares.

National and commercial companies generally dominate the media here. In the Netherlands.

People are generally switching to digital media such as televised, radio, digital media and social networks to get their information rather than print media. Paid circulation of daily newspapers in The Netherlands roughly drops between 3-4 percent every year.

The two national radio stations that compete on news are Radio 1, a public broadcaster and BNR, a commercial station. Although most stations are generally music stations, there is a small percentage of radio that is discussion-based. 82 percent of radio listening is spent on live radio segments.

Press:

Algemeen Dagblad-national and daily news

De Telegraaf-national and daily news

NRC Handelsblad-national and daily news

De Volkskrant-national and daily news

Trouw-national and daily news

Het Parool-Amsterdam daily news

Het Financieele Dagblad-financial daily news

Elsevier-news weekly

Vrij Nederland-news weekly

People in the Netherlands have increasingly been watching TV on laptops and smartphones, as well as other tablet devices where they can access television now from. The most popular programs seemed to be soccer programs in 2016, as well as reality shows and game shows. With the Netherlands public television programs, some programs are made to educate citizens within the Netherlands. In the show Costa!, some scenes discuss and teach ways to have safe sex while also being entertaining to the public. Programs like this one are funded by foundations such as the Dutch Foundation Against Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the Netherlands Heart Foundation and many more to educate the public on important issues within their country. Television is an important medium to access information alongside its counterparts like the press, radio, the internet, and social media.

Television:

NPO-public broadcast

RTL- commercial

SBS- commercial

Radio:

NOS-public radio

Sky Radio-popular commercial FM station, continuous music

Radio 538- popular commercial FM, pop and dance music

BNR Nieuwsradio- commercial news

News agencies/ internet:

Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANP)– news agency

FRNW- International radio and public multimedia

DutchNews.nl- news in English

There were just under 16 million people who use the internet every day in 2016(Internetlivestats), comprising 94% of the population.

Social Media:

Facebook

LinkedIn

Instagram

Twitter

Tumblr

Google+

Whatsapp

There is a growing number of online-only media in the Netherlands. Some focus on news (Decorrespondent.nl, Nu.nl, hundreds of hyperlocals) and others on specific subjects like tech, finance, food, culture or lifestyle. The online newsstand Blendle.nl reached one million subscribers in 2016. Journalists are very media-oriented now as well as many politicians. Primarily, the use of twitter is used heavily by not only these individuals but also news stations as a second medium to put news out onto.

https://medialandscapes.org/country/netherlands/media/sources

Press freedom is extremely valued in The Netherlands. The Netherland government supports the free press within the country as well as outside the country. There is a robust legal framework that protects journalist's rights and extends this to confidentiality of sources those journalists use. In the Netherlands, there is a federation called the NVJ which is an active union with a whole legal department and educational programs for journalists specifically. The rise of populist parties on the right and left is a growing challenge to press freedom. The legitimacy of the free press is being questioned and intimidated by these groups. With online social media platforms, the freedom of the press has been more visible than any time before within the Netherlands. The Netherlands media remains independent and is deeply ingrained into Dutch society. The free press in the Netherlands is considered by international standards, free from governmental or other interference. The greatest threats to the freedom of the press at this time in the Netherlands are right and left-populist movements and organized crime affiliates.

https://rsf.org/en/netherlands

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17741366

Populism media:

Geert Wilders runs an Instagram account currently that frequently posts on a day to day basis. On his pictures he posts, one can generally see an array of comments that are both positive but also extremely negative towards him as the populist leader. He has over 660 posts and 89 thousand followers. He is also not following anyone. On his Instagram bio he has a link to his website www.geertwilders.nl He seldom appears on TV and usually always refuses to be interviewed, but tweets daily. His tweets therefore often end up in media items.

Wilders also utilizes Facebook, Twitter, and a business email for inquiries. Recently Geert Wilders Instagram has been blocked due to remarks he had made about a political rival. However, Wilders relies on twitter to send out messages heavily, due in part to threats that have been made against him by Islamists. On Twitter, he has over 811,000 followers. The tweet that led to Geert Wilders being blocked on twitter described a progressive center-left party as being "suckers…who import ever more Islam and then weep crocodile tears over the consequences, such as honor killings."