Wilders angry about Nazi cartoon (Netherlands)

 Freedom party leader Geert Wilders is angry at Dutch public broadcaster VARA for publishing a cartoon on its website Joop.nl which compares a Freedom Party (PVV) plan to Nazi practices. The party recently proposed building so-called ‘scum villages’ for anti-social people. In the cartoon, the residents of such a village are being led to a shower, the same way the prisoners of Nazi destruction camps were led to ‘showers’ where they were gassed.

Mr Wilders said on Saturday it was “a disgusting cartoon. It must be removed from that website immediately, or the PVV will not attend the VARA provincial elections debate scheduled for next Wednesday." Mr Wilders spoke of “sick minds” at the VARA.

The Joop.nl website is funded by VARA, but has full editorial independence. Francisco van Jole, the website’s editor-in-chief, said Mr Wilders remarks were tantamount to blackmail and that the programme which the Freedom Party was scheduled to attend had nothing to do with Joop.nl. He said he would not remove the cartoon: “This is the opinion of an opinion maker who we are offering a platform. This does not mean we necessarily always share his opinion. It is simply intended to spark debate.''

Mr van Jole said he found it odd that a politician would seek to ban this cartoon. “I understand he is upset … but it forms part of the social debate.” He said Mr Wilders was trying to smother the debate. A VARA spokesperson said the organisation did not necessarily share the opinions presented on Joop.nl and would very much like the Freedom Party to attend Wednesday’s provincial elections debate, but had no intention of ordering Joop.nl to remove the cartoon.

 Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Admin comment. 

Here’s another cartoon that Mr Wilders won’t be so happy about.

 

RACE-HATE CRIMINALS MUST BE BANNED FROM STATE SERVICE - MEDVEDEV (Russia)

Those convicted of ethnic hate crimes must be restricted from state service positions, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday. Speaking at the State Council meeting in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, Medvedev said he would also submit a bill to the State Duma that restricts people charged with incitement of ethnic hatred from holding teaching positions in educational centers. "They must not teach children or the youth at all," the president said. Interethnic problems came to the foreground in mid-December when a Moscow football fan was shot dead in a brawl with migrants from Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus region.

The incident sparked race-hate riots and ethnic clashes across Russia, including a brawl between over 5,000 nationalists and police outside the Kremlin walls on December 11. Medvedev ordered the government to investigate the cases of ethnically-motivated restrictions in government administration circles. "It is no secret that there are restrictions to certain nationalities during the formation of administrative organs in some republics and individual regions," Medvedev said, adding that such "lopsidedness should be eradicated."

RIA.Novosti

Leaked e-mails embarrass German far-right party

The leak of thousands of confidential e-mails from members of Germany's far-right National Democratic Party shows the group is soaked in racist and neo-Nazi ideology.

Thousands of leaked private e-mails have embarrassed the German far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). The data, which were leaked to several German media organizations, reveal some of the inner workings of the xenophobic, nationalist fringe party.

One example of the prevalence of neo-Nazi ideology among party members was revealed in their use of the code "88" - popular among neo-Nazis as an abbreviation of the Nazi-era slogan "Heil Hitler." "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet and "88" is taken to stand for "HH."

The e-mails also reveal extensive infighting around the recent merger of the NPD with the like-minded German People's Union (DVU).

The leaked correspondence, made up of some 60,000 e-mails, reveals a strong adherence to neo-Nazi ideology and betrays the party's attempts to present itself as a more moderate political group on the right wooing voters disgruntled with the country's main conservative Christian Democrats.

Misuse of party funds

Besides being a public-relations disaster for a party already viewed with extreme suspicion by most of the population, the data release could have legal consequences for the party.

The e-mails from end of 2010 to early 2011 suggest that the election campaign in the state of Saxony-Anhalt have partly been paid for by NPD money from the neighboring state of Saxony.

Such cross-state financing with party funds is illegal.

The NPD has said it will file a criminal complaint about the leaked e-mails. It is, however, unclear who was behind the release.

The anti-immigration party is considered the political arm of the neo-Nazi movement in Germany. It is often involved in far-right extremist marches.

The attempt by the party to give itself a more mainstream image is aimed at cracking the crucial five percent threshold that any party must attain to be represented in local or federal parliaments. The fringe group has no federal-level representation, but seats in two of Germany's 16 state parliaments.

DW-World