Crime

Maassluis swimming pool threatened after Wilders criticism

By Janene Pieters on October 25, 2017 - 14:10

The Dol-fijn swimming pool in Maassluis had to hire in extra security due to threats received after PVV leader Geert Wilders posted a critical tweet about the pool on Twitter earlier this week. "We owe all this to Geert Wilders", Dol-fijn manager Richard Ritmeester said to newspaper AD.

This commotion started because of an announcement on the Dol-fijn website. The announcement offered swimming lessons to "(immigrant) women" who want to get their A, B, or C swimming diploma in a screened-off place. "Sharia swimming in the Netherlands", Wilders tweeted.

The swimming pool realized that their announcement may create confusion, and adjusted the text. Dol-fijn doesn't only offer swimming lessons in their screened off area to Muslim women, but to women of all nationalities, Ritmeester emphasized.

He hoped that adjusting the text would be the end of the matter, but that turned out not to be the case. The swimming pool received threats. A security guard was hired to watch the pool on Tuesday night, and he will be there again tonight. "The situation is pretty intense", Ritmeester said to the newspaper. "More than that I cannot say."