Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam party Partij voor de Vrijheid has spawned a number of local clones in the local elections, the AD reports on Thursday.
The PVV is only taking part in the March 3 local votes in Almere and the Hague. But several new parties are using the word free (vrij) or freedom in their name hoping to cash in on Wilders’ popularity, the paper says.
For example, in the small town of Spakenburg near Utrecht, the Spakenburgse Vrijheid Partij is campaigning ‘to keep Western culture’.
Seagull
In Groningen, Matthijs Jansen, leader of the Partij Vrij Groningen says he plans to ‘sweep through the elite’ – using similar words to Wilders himself, the paper says.
The PVG also includes a seagull in its logo – like the PVV itself. ‘We are going for as many votes as possible,’ Jansen told the paper.
Wilders declined to comment on the clones.
