Wilders must be taken seriously

After Geert Wilders' success in the local elections in the Netherlands the daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung calls for a serious exchange with the right-wing anti-Islamist. Although Wilders has absurd demands and no interest in constructive politics, ignoring him would be negligent, the paper writes: "The Netherlands, once a bastion of liberal lifestyles and fanciful laisser-faire attitudes, has all too long disavowed the fact that under the cloak of generous immigration a parallel society has developed which couldn't care less about the most moderate integration efforts. Consequently the democratic parties will not be able to avoid dealing intensively with this problem. Because by abandoning integration policy to Wilders, they run the risk that the PVV and its moonstruck leader will play a key role in the next Dutch parliament and massively hinder the possibility of meaningful governance. Even the noblest of reservations aren't worth such a price."

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