Netherlands flirts with extremism

The Netherlands is a nation which used to bear brightly the torch of liberalism in Europe. Sadly, that torch is spluttering as the Dutch flirt with right-wing extremists.

Under a minority coalition partnership, the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party may have to rely on the anti-Islam Freedom Party to form a government. The Freedom Party believes in banning the burqa and tightening immigration rules. Its leader, Geert Wilders, faces justice in a trial due to begin this morning for calling Islam "fascist" and likening the Quran to Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The lure of power is always attractive to the leaders of any political party, but there is a difference between gaining power for power's sake, and selling out on all reasonable principles. Wilders' brand of politics is extreme, hateful, hurtful and flies in the face of the values of a nation that knows too well the horrors which race-based hatred brings.