Monday, 27 July 2015 - 12:14
Rotterdam Mayor: What is your "fewer Moroccans" plan Wilders?
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has challenged PVV leader Geert Wilders to come out with his plan to have "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. The mayor did so in a speech on television program Zomergasten on Sunday, RTL Nieuws reports.
"Wilders has said that he will arrange it. Then society has the right to know how he will do that. I want to know from him: what is your plan? When are you going to arrange it? Society has the right to know the plan", Aboutaleb said. Nearly 800 thousand people watched the interview with the Moroccan-born, Muslim Mayor, Stichting Kijkonderzoek announced on Monday.
In the interview, Aboutaleb talked about his father, who worked two jobs so that his children could have a proper education and is now afraid that he will have to eave the Netherlands. "That has caused him an incredible amount of pain", the Rotterdam Mayor said. "There has to be fewer people like him, not because he has done something wrong, but because he belongs to an ethnic group. My parents are scared. So I want to know from Wilders: when are you going to send them back?"
Mayor Aboutaleb is well known for being vocally opposed to religious extremists. After the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January, the mayor gave a now famous speech telling Muslims in the Netherlands who are not prepared to live with the country's ideals to "fuck off". He reiterated the sentiment in a mosque a few weeks later.
Earlier this year the Rotterdam Mayor also attended a conference in the United States on tackling radicalization and violent extremism. During this conference Aboutaleb urged Muslims to actively distance themselves from attacks committed in the name of religion.
The PVV leader responded to the Rotterdam Mayor's statements on Twitter on Sunday. He said that Aboutaleb should have paid better attention and referred to a video.
https://twitter.com/geertwilderspvv/status/625415803148611585
Wilders is currently under investigation for his "fewer Moroccans" chants during an election campaign last year. The Public Prosecutor has decided to prosecute the PVV leader for inciting racism, something that Wilders finds "incomprehensible".