Some PVV locals drop headscarf ban, remain undesirable

The PVV departments in Flevoland, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland, and Noord-Holland have removed the headscarf ban for civil servants from their election programs. In 2011 they still stated that officials, State members and deputies were not welcome in the Province House if they arrive with a headscarf. Now that point has disappeared. "If you want to govern you should not put things in that you know ill encounter a lot of resistance." said Zeeland PVV party leader Peter van Dijk. Flevoland party leader Chris Jansen said last week that eventually forming a coalition was the reason they made the election program less concrete. "We noticed last time that a number of parties have a lot of trouble with a number of things. Then you have to be smart and take out those points." The PVV became the largest party in Almere and The Hague in the municipal elections in 2010. It turned out however, that it was impossible for Wilders' party to form a coalition because other parties insisted that the headscarf ban should be dropped. It now seems that the PVV wants to avoid a repetition of that situation. "For us it is not a breaking point." said Van Dijk from Zeeland. He also emphasized that a Province House without headscarves is still an ideal for the PVV. "If we were to write down everything we want, we would have to write a book", van Dijk said. "What stands in our program are our main lines." Earlier this week PVV leader Geert Wilders said on BNR that the position of the PVV has not changed. "In each province the PVV makes its own program, the one states somewhat more than others, but our Islam position remains the same."