Dutch election-winner Geert Wilders withdraws proposal to ban mosques and Koran

Far-right Dutch election winner Geert Wilders made a key concession to potential coalition partners on Monday, announcing that he is withdrawing legislation that he proposed in 2018 that calls for a ban on mosques and the Koran.

The move came a day before talks to form the next government are to resume after the November election.

The abandonment of the Bill could be critical in gaining the trust and support of three more mainstream parties that Mr Wilders wants to co-opt into a coalition along with his Party for Freedom, known by its Dutch acronym PVV.

One of those parties’ leaders, Pieter Omtzigt of the reformist New Social Contract, has expressed fears that some of Mr Wilders’ policies breach the Dutch constitution that enshrines liberties, including the freedom of religion.

During a parliamentary debate last year, after the PVV won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament in the November 22 general election, Mr Wilders flagged a softening of his party’s strident anti-Islam stance.

“Sometimes I will have to withdraw proposals and I will do that,” Mr Wilders said in the debate.

“I will show the Netherlands, the legislature, Mr Omtzigt’s party, anybody who wants to hear it, that we will adapt our rules to the constitution and bring our proposals in line with it.”

Mr Wilders is due to resume coalition talks on Tuesday with Mr Omtzigt and the leaders of two other parties, the centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte and the Farmer Citizen Movement led by Caroline van der Plas.

Among three pieces of legislation axed by by Mr Wilders Party for Freedom was one dating back to 2018 that proposes banning “Islamic expressions”.

The text describes Islam as a “violent, totalitarian ideology” and proposes bans on mosques, the Koran, Islamic schools and the wearing of burkas and niqabs.

The three laws were proposed to parliament by Mr Wilders in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but never garnered a majority in the lower house.

In an assessment of the proposed ban on Islamic expressions, the Council of State, an independent watchdog that evaluates legislation, called on Mr Wilders to scrap it.