PvdA leader denounces boardmembers' Wilders Hitler comparison
PvdA leader Hans Spekman has publicly disagreed with his party’s board member’s Fouad Sidali calling comparing Geert Wilders with Adolf Hitler.
“It is an inappropriate comparison that I would never have made myself,” Spekman told RTL Nieuws, adding: “(But) Wilders should realize what it does to people when he says that it would not be a bad thing if there were less Moroccans. I keep finding that a sickening statement.” Wilders had said earlier this week in The Hague that the city should become one “with fewer burdens and if possible fewer Moroccans”. His got flak for the statement, but insisted afterward that he no one could tell him what to say about Moroccans. There have been since two complaints against him for discrimination. Sidali hit back Thursday afternoon: “Hitler walks among us. In the person of Geert Wilders. Hitler also found that there should be less Jews. We will never forget that.” Several people called it a ridiculous comparison that held no ground. This morning the Moroccan born politician who has been on the board of PvdA since 2009 retracted his statement, but he still insisted that Wilders had been the one to deal the first blow in this argument. He tweeted: “The comparison I made was inappropriate and I should not have made it. But people should realize what kinds of emotions the statements by Wilders cause.” Wilders followed up Sidali’s apology with ridicule: “Sidali has been put back on the leash by Spekman. It would be even wiser for him to go back to Morocco,” the PVV leader tweeted.