Many PVV voters disagree with anti-Islam rhetoric, Nexit

 

FRIDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2023 - 08:05

https://nltimes.nl/2023/12/01/many-pvv-voters-disagree-anti-islam-rhetoric-nexit

 

Many PVV voters disagree with anti-Islam rhetoric, Nexit

 

Many PVV voters don’t support the far-right party’s more radical views - “pushing back Islam” and the Netherlands leaving the European Union. They expect their party will have to water down its standpoints in order to govern, and most are okay with that, according to a Hart van Nederland survey of 1,000 PVV voters in its opinion panel.

 

Only 22 percent of PVV voters say they want to ban the Koran, and 32 percent want to close mosques. Only 36 percent are in favor of a Nexit, and 43 percent support expelling Turkey from NATO.

 

There are some controversial standpoints that PVV voters still support en masse. For example, 87 percent of PVV voters want to close the Dutch borders to asylum seekers, even though that is against international treaties. And just as many want to keep Zwarte Piet in his traditional blackface form with curly hair, big red lips, and golden earrings. That despite the fact that many experience this caricature of a black person as racist and discriminatory.

 

PVV voters mainly support their party’s more practical plans. For example, 93 percent want dentistry to return to the basic health insurance package. 89 percent want the state pension age to return to 65 years. And 83 percent want to abolish the healthcare deductible and eliminate nitrogen rules that limit housing construction.

 

The survey results indicate that most PVV voters won’t mind Geert Wilders taking some distance from the party’s more radical positions. 70 percent have come to terms with the fact that the PVV will compromise on all of these points. 24 percent think that Wilders will hold firm on the more controversial positions. Only 6 percent believe the party won’t be part of the next government.