Khalid Kasem states that Geert Wilders’ election win is causing feelings of unrest in his family. His children heard on the schoolyard that they had to leave the country.
Geert Wilders’ enormous election win is causing quite a stir in the country. Many people finally feel heard now that he has a serious chance of becoming the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, but there are also people who feel quite a bit of panic. This unrest is also close to home for Khalid Kasem, presenter of Khalid & Sophie.
‘I don’t belong’
Khalid says on his talk show that his children were quite frightened by it. “Indeed, no Muslim will be expelled from the Netherlands. They have a Dutch passport, that’s really not going to happen. I also think that the institutions in the Netherlands are strong enough, if you look at the majorities that you have to find, etc..”
It’s more emotional, he explains. “What you are doing now is that an entire generation that has actually been in the world since September 11th has been saying: I am not allowed to fully participate in the Netherlands… They are doing their best and thinking: the next generation will no longer be able to do that. He now thinks: I don’t belong, certainly not.”
Children scared
Khalid’s children are anxious. “I have to be honest: I was watching that results evening and at nine o’clock my sons were still awake and I was sitting on the couch and they asked me: ‘Yes, Dad, on the schoolyard they were talking about if that gentleman with the white hair becomes the tallest, we will have to leave the Netherlands.’”
And then? “Then I say to him: ‘No, don’t worry so much’, but then I think: wait a minute, that is also how it is felt at the moment in the Netherlands and we should not push that aside, I think.”
Correct proportions
According to his dinner guest Özcan Akyol, we should not exaggerate. “I’m just saying: look at it in the right proportions, what is possible in the Netherlands and what is not.”
Khalid: “Yes, but that is factual.”
Özcan: “You can look for the cause in him and what he says, but you can also do some self-examination: what have we left behind? So people who call themselves progressive and left-wing. What have people missed in the media? (…) It is not true that the PVV is a one-dimensional extreme right-wing party. That’s just not right.”
‘I don’t take it seriously’
How do the men of Today Inside respond to Khalid’s story? Johan Derksen: “I don’t take that couple seriously at all if the right has won. I think it’s nonsense and it makes no sense. I don’t believe that those children go to bed with fear and trembling because Mr. Wilders has been elected. Come on!”
Wilfred Genee: “Well, it could be, but should you use it? That is of course the question.”
Johan: “If that is the case, you should definitely not use it, no.”
Wilfred: “That’s it, yes.”
Johan: “It’s all very boring.”
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There are more celebrities who say that their children are upset. Critics respond sceptically to this: