23 January 2017

General election: ‘Go away if you don’t like it here,’ says Dutch PM

.... The advert takes the form of an open letter to ‘all Netherlanders’. ‘There is something up in our country,’ Rutte says. ‘Why is our country so prosperous and yet some people behave so poorly?’

The letter refers to anti-social behaviour in traffic, on public transport and in the streets. ‘We feel a growing unease when people misuse our freedoms to spoil everything, when they have come to our country for freedom,’ Rutte says. ‘People who don’t want to adapt… who attack gay people, who shout at women in short skirts or call ordinary Dutch people racist.’

The coming period, Rutte says, will decide what direction the Netherlands will take. ‘There is one question to be answered,’ he says. ‘What sort of country do we want?’ The VVD is challenging Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV to become the biggest party after the March 15 general election. Rutte has already ruled out working together in a coalition with the PVV. [DutchNews] Read more