Fitna arrives Britain

The Dutch extreme-right Freedom Party, led by controversial anti-Islamist Geert Wilders, looks set to make large electoral gains at the upcoming general election with an outside chance of becoming the Netherlands’ largest party, according to the latest polls.

The Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a controversial figure owing to his anti-Islamic views, won many voters over to his party, the Party for Freedom, in Wednesday’s local elections in the Netherlands. If he manages to repeat the success in the parliamentary elections slated for June 9, Dutch politics will be destabilised and Europe will be forced to deal seriously with the right-wing populist, writes the European press.

Deconstructing Geert Wilders

The Daily Telegraph has a portrait of Geert Wilders, the Dutch extreme right politician whose party is calling for the stop of the Islamization of the Netherlands and increasing its popularity with that message. Sugary excerpt:

Europe 2020 – The missing points

I was born in a socialist country, so I am no fan of 10-year plans unless they come from the European Union.

With the Lisbon Strategy, the EU has invented the internet. It has reformed its agricultural policy and made it greener, more efficient, and more fair for the rest of the world. It has become a global leader in protecting human rights. And English has become our lingua franca that every EU citizen speaks beside his mother tongue and the languages of all national minorities (including Welsh).

The European Union is to become more economically stable, more successful in education policy and more environmentally friendly. These are the aims of the new “Europe 2020” growth strategy which EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso presented on Wednesday in Brussels. But the goals don’t go far enough and fail to provide the groundwork for a European economic government, writes the press.

Commission breaks impasse on GMOs

The new Barroso Commission has wasted no time in grasping the GMO nettle, after years of delay and obfuscation. It is authorising the cultivation and use of Amflora, a new genetically modified potato for industrial use, while at the same time working on a policy which will allow individual member states to forbid the cultivation of GM crops on their territory. I guess this optional approach is the only way to resolve an impasse based far more on sentiment than science.

Financing Europe?s Energy and Climate Action Needs

Greatings from a sunny, if cold, Washington D.C. where we?ve been having our global public affairs meeting over the past couple of days. Many highlights in the course of the two days, much of which you can catch at the FH Public Affairs twitter account. DC colleague Silvio Marcacci patiently sat at the back of the room  tweeting away as various colleagues gave their views on everything from food safety and healthcare to energy and financial services. We?ve also some video that we shall be seeking to upload on the FH Public Affairs Youtube Channel.