Aanvulling artikel Bolkestein

Wie Wilders wil bestrijden, moet dat doen op basis van feiten en argumenten en moet niet met verdachtmakingen komen. Wilders heeft voldoende verwerpelijks gezegd over de Europese Unie en de islam om dat mogelijk te maken.

Now what about this Return of the Ghosts. Let me concentrate on Amsterdam, the city where I live. In forty years’ time the population of Amsterdam has changed radically. Half of that population is now from foreign, i.e. non-Western, origin. That causes a host of problems. Islam is now the major religion. One cannot expect such a transformation to take place without a reaction. As the leading article of the Financial times (of 05.04.’10) put it: “Ordinary voters have legitimate concerns about mass immigration that mainstream politicians would be irresponsible to ignore.”

Have the people of Amsterdam asked for this transformation? No. Have they voted for it? Not that I know. So why did it happen?

Our policy on immigrants laboured in the nineteen eighties and nineties under an erroneous theory, viz. multiculturalism. That theory found expression in the slogan “integration while retaining cultural identity”. For a while, multiculturalism was forced onto the Dutch citizens until it came out of their ears. It led to the image of the Good Stranger, with biblical overtones, which sapped the government’s will to restrict immigration.

Let me end this short intervention with another image, that of the bent twig. It is used by Isaiah Berlin, who says it is from Schiller. It means that if a twig is bent too much, it is likely to snap back with force. We are seeing that happen now.

The perspective is not good. According to the United Nations, the combined population of West and North Africa will grow between 2000 and 2050 from 400 to 876 million. May of these people will want to enter Europe. Athens now shows what lies in waiting for us.