GEERT WILDERS GETTING HIS BURQA BAN?

When his anti-Islam party won a substantial share of seats in the elections this past June in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders also received leverage and political capital. He's obviously showing that he's willing to use it. Two other parties in that country realized that in order to get the support of Wilders' PVV party, they had to yield on what has become a major agenda item for Wilders. The agreement reached between the parties includes banning the Burqa.

Reuters reports:

Two center-right parties agreed on Thursday to ban the burqa in the Netherlands as the price for parliamentary support from the anti-Islam Freedom party for their minority government.

The Netherlands would become the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, in what many see as a shift to the right which has dented the bloc's reputation for tolerance and may increase security risks.

The agreement tightens the rules on immigration and boosts the number of police officers in a sop to far-right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who is on trial in the Netherlands for inciting hatred against Muslims.

As Wilders is getting other party leaders to jump on board with his agenda, he himself goes on trial next week for inciting hatred and insulting Muslims.

Via Blooomberg:

Wilders, 47, is charged with insulting a group of people, inciting hatred and inciting discrimination with his comments, the court said on its website. Wilders may face as many as two years in prison or be fined as much as 19,000 euros ($26,000).

Uh, so should the other party leaders who agreed to ban the burqa and tighten up on illegal immigration be prosecuted too? It would seem that these charges against Wilders would best be dropped since an increasingly large number of people in his country are aligning with him.

h/t to Weasel Zippers