Wilders gets green light for Mohammed-cartoon competition in Dutch parliament

PVV leader Geert Wilders is allowed to organize a Mohammed-cartoon competition in the Tweede Kamer building. The Dutch coordinator for counter-terrorism and security NCTV sees no safety risks because the exhibition will be held in the PVV chambers, which are highly secured and private, a spokesperson for the NCTV confirmed to RTL Nieuws.

"The NCTV has informed the Tweede Kamer [the lower house of Dutch parliament] that it has no objection to the exhibition from a safety point of view", the spokesperson said.

Kamer president Khadija Arib will not try to stop the contest. "For a gathering in his own parliamentary chambers, as Wilders is now planning, no permission is needed", she said, according to the broadcaster.

On Twitter Wilders said that he will organize the competition later this year. He will be on the jury himself, along with American Boch Fawstin, who won a Mohammed-cartoon contest in Texas in 2015. Wilders was a guest at the event. Shortly after he left, two jihadists tried to attack the event center.

The PVV leader previously said that this competition has to do with freedom of speech and is not a provocation. Everyone can participate in the contest, as long as the subject of the submitted cartoon is the prophet Mohammed. First prize is 5 thousand euros, which came from an anonymous donor.