Dutch Poll: Should Geert Wilders be Prosecuted? 85% No

A Dutch Appeals court recently ordered the prosecution of Geert Wilders head of the Dutch Freedom Party for creating a short film called Fitna. How do the Dutch feel?

According to one Dutch blogger a recent poll indicated that 51% of the respondents were in agreement with the statement, "the Court made an unacceptable breach of the position of a MP representing more than half a million Dutch voters".

Another poll asked a simple and direct question: Moet Wilders vervolgd worden? 84.5% of the respondents said no.

For background of this story, check out this Dutch blogger.

Here is a comment regarding the poll from Snouck from the Netherlands regarding this poll:


Xeriscapist -The Geenstijl poll that you mention is not representative for the Dutch population but for the readers of Geenstijl. Right-wingers and Freedom-lovers are overrepresented amongst readers of Geenstijl.As you can read in the rest of the Geenstijl article they are casting doubt on the accuracy of internet polls. They also mention the TNS NIPO poll which polls a more Leftwing oriented group. They show 51 percent approval for prosecuting Geert Wilders for inciting hatred against Islam.Geenstijl further seems to imply that the people who are polled by peilpunt, the poll that I used as the basis of my article, are more of the Left than of the Right.My conclusions:-all the polls are problematic.-both NPS NIPO and peilpunt poll amongst a group that is more Leftist oriented than the general population-so the support for Geert Wilders is actually even bigger than the my peilpunt-poll indicates. Support for Wilders is HIGHER amongst the general voting population than 50 percent.And finally: Even amongst the Leftist TNS NIPO poll there is only 51 percent approval for the prosecution of Geert Wilders. That is a narrow majority. I think that Geert Wilders stands a lot to win and the Government and the Court stands a lot to lose in the coming legal battle.Regards,Snouck