Amsterdam mayor: prosecuting Wilders a piece of cake

Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan has joined the growing fraternity of Dutch officials who are publicly voicing their disagreement with Moroccan bashing statements by PVV leader Geert Wilders. A former lawyer, Van der Laan told Pauw & Witteman talkshow Thursday night that as far as he can see, prosecuting Wilders should be “a piece of cake for the Prosecutor’s Office.” “We all saw him incite hate right in front of our eyes,” said the mayor. He said Wilders has been known to make offensive statements and got out from under a court case before, but this time it’s different because he named Moroccans explicitly. Van der Laan, who comes from the PvdA party said community leaders should come up for their people. “This also applies to Mark Rutte. But the solution should come from within the community. We saw a kind of a protest (today), which could serve as a solution that comes from everybody,” he said, referring to a Facebook page that, with its calls on citizens to file police complaints against Wilders has garnered near 40,000 likes in a matter of days.