Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders remains unrepentant after being told he is to be prosecuted for inciting hatred and discrimination towards Moroccans during the European elections campaign last March, describing the charges as "a travesty".
The prosecution stems from a campaign rally in a café in The Hague, broadcast live on television, at which Mr Wilders led his supporters in anti- Moroccan chanting, sparking a record 6,400 complaints to the police and a nationwide debate about the apparent demise of tolerance.
Moderate Dutch looked on aghast as the leader of the anti-Islam, anti-EU Freedom Party asked the crowd if they wanted more or fewer Moroccans in their city, prompting the chant: "Fewer, fewer, fewer." After that he leaned towards the microphone and smiled: "We can take care of that."
In an interview broadcast later the same evening, Mr Wilders referred to “Moroccan scum”. It was a politically ill-judged performance widely credited with having dashed the Freedom Party’s hopes of a much-vaunted anti-austerity landslide in May. Instead, the party’s share of the vote fell from 17 per cent in 2009 to just 12.2 per cent and a lacklustre fourth place.
The public prosecutor’s office announced the charges in a statement which said Mr Wilders – whose party is once again topping the polls after that brief period of disgrace – would face trial for “insulting a specific group based on race, and inciting discrimination and hatred”.
Unusually, the prosecutor’s statement added the brief observation: “Politicians may go quite far in their comments under the right to free speech, but that same freedom is limited by the ban on discrimination.”
Mr Wilders – who just a week ago refused to apologise and quoted Martin Luther King jnr in defence of his right to freedom of expression – was once again unrepentant, saying he had simply spoken “the truth”.
“I said what millions of people think and believe. The public prosecutors should be going after jihadists instead of me. The Freedom Party is the biggest party in the polls, and the political elite apparently don’t like it.”
However, the head of the Moroccan National Council, Mohamed Rabbae, responded: "This shows that everyone is equal and that Mr Wilders is not above the law. We want to keep this country together, and that's why it's important to show that everyone is treated the same."
It' is not the first time Mr Wilders has been in the prosecutor's sights. In 2011, Mr Wilders he was found not guilty after being indicted for describing the Koran as "fascist" and comparing it to Hitler's Mein Kampf – comments the judge ruled were "gross" but "acceptable within the context of public debate". However, there has been a significant change in the law in the past few days.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled in another case that while politicians could shock or insult as part of public debate, they had a responsibility to “prevent spreading pronouncements which conflict with the law and the principles of a democratic state.”
