Bright days ahead for populism

"Rita Verdonk [integration minister] follows in the same tradition as the Austrian Jörg Haider, the Belgian Filip Dewinter, the Dutchman Pim Fortuyn, the Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Pen and the American Ross Perrot. They are all populists who threaten democracy by proposing simplistic solutions," Hans Dijkstal, the former leader of the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD [of which Verdonk is a member], explains in an interview to a regional newspaper. "According to Dijkstal, Dutch political culture is under threat from simplistic thoughts. The influence of television, especially, is preventing nuance from being taken into consideration."

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