Nursing home cancels refugees’ cooking event after threats, nationalist pressure

A cooking event at a nursing home in Nijmegen for refugees living in the Heumensoord emergency shelter, was cancelled after online threats and pressure from the Gelderland PVV. According to a spokesperson for the organizers of the event, such a fuss arose around the event that they had little choice but to cancel it, AD reports. Gelderland PVV leader Marjolien Faber released a statement on the party's website in which she writes that she is concerned about the safety of the nursing home's residents, given that the asylum seekers will have free access. And that most of the asylum seekers are male. She also calls it "interesting" that the nursing home's restaurant is closed to residents from 5:00 p.m. and that the refugee cooking event wash arranged for after that. "Apparently costs play no role for refugees, but do for our elderly", the anti-Islam faction leader wrote. Part of Faber's statement was published on blog GeenStijl and lead a number of hostile remarks, many aimed at nursing home manager Grete Visser, also a Nijmegen councilor for the D66. "I already put Grete on my To Do list", one commenter wrote. "It is surely absurd that someone should wait for 10 years for a rent house while some fortune seeker immediately gets one. Time for rebellion viva revolution" wrote another. Other comments included phrases like "pretty soon I'm going to call for armed resistance" and "in itself the D'666 has a point that slaughtering the elderly is a good way to combat aging." All this led to the event being cancelled. "Not all residents are against it, not at all, but the discussion creates unrest and they are vulnerable people. Anonymous posters against the initiative was even hung in the house", Marion van de Coevering, spokesperson for the nursing home's Board of Directors, said to AD.