"Sticks and Stones"

Hansje Brinker's task just seems unfeasible, not necessarily unreasonable.

A Commentary from Dutch Correspondent Maarten van Dop on the Geert Wilders Case in the Netherlands

As Mister Wilders left the Amsterdam restaurant where he celebrated his acquittal from justice on Thursday, a group of adolescents yelled 'Nazi!' at his car departing. Mr. Wilders might be liable to sue these ruffians. Quite a few motormouths like these have already been sued by him. The word 'nazi' seems to be completely inflated from misuse. Even so, it was quite brave to shout at Mr. Wilders like that, even if it wasn't quite right.

Let me suggest another option. Let's call Mr. Wilders 'melkmuil'. Now, this is a word not easily translated. Literally, it means something like 'milkmouth'. That would be appropriate enough already, if you've ever seen a picture of the man. But the word also means 'whining bore'. And that really sums him up.

The trial, however, wasn't about Mr. Wilders being a 'nazi'. As far as I know, 'nazi' is not part of legal terminology. Mr. Wilders was accused of discrimination and inciting hatred against a minority, the Muslims. It's fairly safe to say a majority of the nation was fervently posed against the trial. Some out of sympathy for Mr. Wilders, but more because many felt the trial to be counter-productive -- which is exactly how it turned out.

The public prosecutors tried to move to acquittal two times before. The court forced them to proceed. The private prosecutors were determined to get a conviction. The whole thing turned into a prolonged media triumph for any happy narcissist. Mr. Wilders relished in it. He might even be sad now that it's over. But it mattered not whether he won or lost anyhow. Now that he's won, he's been proven 'right', at least in the eyes of the dunces. Had he lost, he would've become a martyr, a very real political convictee.

Wilders as Dutch 17th century hero Michiel de Ruyter. No, that's not a wig.

Not yet a political prisoner, though. Mr. Wilders might've been punished with some public service duty. This would've seen him cleaning the streets alongside exactly those adolescent ruffians he enjoys. That would've been some nice irony. But now the court has granted him, in his capacity as a parliamentary representative, a little more freedom of expression than us normal citizens. The real reason the case was suspended, however, was because it finally dawned on the court, that what remained from this case was the undermining of the court's own authority, and nothing much else.