I usually enter a new year with a cheerful mind; At midnight I look in admiration at the countless colors and stars that light up the sky and exchange nostalgia for cheerfulness and hope. But this year the prospects are bleak. I think that here in Europe and especially the Netherlands we have become so used to freedom and safety that we have started to take them for granted and therefore do not see that danger also beckons us.
Many people will say that it won’t go that fast, but it starts with an undemocratic leader who is elected and before you know it, all kinds of rights are being tampered with. Also here in the so-called down-to-earth Netherlands, where VVD, NSC and BBB are talking with the PVV about a possible coalition.
First, ‘the other’ is the bunny, ‘the foreigner’, the ‘refugee’ who does not belong here, or who is stealing ‘our homes’, the ‘transgender’ who has to act ‘normal’, bicultural Dutch people who have to know their place, women who want an abortion. But soon everyone who does not follow the narrow-minded authoritarian trend will have to believe it.
We only have to look at the countries around us where conservative autocrats rule, and online, especially on
Wilders, apologies Milders, is hitting the old-fashioned way again after an unconvincing pause. On Telegram he attacked a study ‘Introduction to Islamic Family Law’ at the University of Maastricht. We can ignore that, something with a fox and hair, but a free academy is essential for a healthy and stable society. Scientists must be able to share knowledge and conduct research without political pressure.
Especially in these times when science is made suspect and facts are contested with gut feelings, it is important to guarantee the independence of universities. I don’t see any of the four parties doing it.
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He is the weak politician, driven by fear of the stranger. Democracy and freedom are not for the faint of heart. Not for vindictive politicians who want to take their revenge as soon as they smell power. A true democrat does not tamper with the rule of law or the freedoms of his critics.
But that is now under pressure. While the far right pointed to Muslims as ‘invading our institutions’, it confidently took over parliament.
Aided by left-wing and progressive parties that have gone along with the frames and rhetoric in recent years, such as the talk about mass migration and the accusation of the left that people cannot afford a house. The right has managed to dominate politics while blaming everything on the left-wing opposition. Perpetrator and victim in one.
We have ended up in the cartoon of the rich man with a bowl full of cookies who tells the worker that the foreigner wants to take his cookie. Politics has been taken over by cynical vandals who destroy rights and blame others for it.
It is time for the progressive forces to show more courage, to stop being intimidated by the extreme right or a false sense of decency, and to take up the fight. Grow a backbone, there’s too much at stake.
Hassnae Bouazza is a writer, journalist, columnist and program maker.