THE HAGUE, April 3 (Xinhua) -- In recent weeks Dutch police across the Netherlands had received around 5,000 declarations against right wing populist politician Geert Wilders for discrimination against Moroccans, the Dutch public prosecutor stated on Thursday.
During the municipal elections on March 19, Wilders, leader of the right wing populist PVV, asked his fans if they wanted "more or fewer" Moroccans, with the attendees cheering "fewer, fewer" afterwards. "Good, we're going to arrange that," Wilders concluded.
The PVV was founded in 2005 and became a popular party in the Netherlands, amid growing anti-immigrant and anti-Islam sentiment in the country. His party was the third party of the country in the last two national selections.
Surrounding the campaign for the municipal elections he specifically pointed at people of Moroccan descent, one of the largest ethnic groups in the Netherlands, suffering from high criminal rates.
The remarks raised an outrage among politicians from other parties and also on social media.
The Alliance of Moroccan Dutch announced to go to the police in order to post a declaration against Wilders for racist abuse, sedition and incitement. The organization was calling on everyone who felt hurt by Wilders to do the same. The example was so far followed by over 5,000 people.
In addition to these declarations, the website of the police also received 15,000 mentions of discrimination by Wilders.
The Public Prosecutor is currently studying the declarations and statements by the politician.
Wilders reacted on Wednesday by also posting a declaration at the police against Labor Party leaders Diederik Samsom and Hans Spekman, who in the past advocated a hard approach towards criminal Moroccans.
"I hope everybody will follow me so the Public Prosecutor has to say something on my words and their words," Wilders explained. "I hope none of us will be prosecuted."
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