Next Dutch government may not back ban on burqa

A NEW government in the Netherlands, along the lines of the coalition which agreed Thursday night’s last-minute reduced budget deficit, would be likely to adopt a stance which is a much less anti-immigrant – and might even abandon advanced plans to ban the Islamic burqa.

Draft legislation on the burqa ban was drawn up by the minority Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition last year on the insistence of Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, as part of an agreement under which he would support budget cuts from the opposition.

However, Mr Wilders brought the government down last weekend when he withdrew from that deal in a row over a package of cuts aimed at meeting the European Union’s deficit target of 3 per cent by next Monday – and at least two of the three parties now supporting the new budget agreement have been consistently opposed to the burqa ban.

Both government parties are known to have been “uneasy” about the ban, and both the centre-left D66, and GreenLeft, have been outspoken in their opposition to it – and say they remain determined to oppose it.

The draft legislation has been strongly criticised by the influential advisory council of state – while police say that in any case the law would be unworkable.

GreenLeft leader Jolande Sap said she hoped the agreement on the budget package – which will be finalised this weekend and delivered to Brussels on Monday – would bring an end to “the wind from the right that has been blowing through the Netherlands”.

Last night EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the budgetary agreement sends a “strong signal” of commitment to keep Dutch public finances on a strong footing.

As more detail of Thursday night’s surprise deal emerged yesterday, it became clear that another of Mr Wilders’s controversial demands, a €1 billion cut in the development aid budget – publicly opposed by both Bill Gates and Archbishop Desmond Tutu – has also been abandoned.

However, as the cabinet finally confirmed an election date of Wednesday, September 12th, unions responded angrily to the decision to continue a public sector pay freeze – especially teachers and police, who are already demanding increases.

* Romania’s left-leaning opposition will try to form a new government after torpedoing the centre-right cabinet in a confidence vote yesterday, the latest collapse of an austerity-minded ruling coalition in Europe. – (Reuters)