What the papers say: links between Anders Breivik and the PVV

Anders Breivik, who shot dead at least 68 youngsters in Norway on Friday, mentions Geert Wilders 30 times in his 1,500 page manifesto. The NRC and Trouw look at the links.


In its analysis of Breivik and his ‘wonderment’ for the PVV, the NRC argues that there are similarities between both world views.
‘Both are very worried about what they see as the threat posed by Islam to Europe and blame ‘ruling elites’ for doing nothing about this threat,’ the paper states.
‘And whoever reads Breivik’s manifesto will recognise terminology used by the PVV: Multi-culti, cultural marxist ideology, dhimmitude and taqiyya. The analysis which Breivik makes about the threat posed by Islam to the future of Europe will also be familiar to the PVV, even though it is more apocalyptic.’
Tarred with the same brush
But the paper goes on to quote D66 MP Boris van der Ham who writes about the ‘triumphant’ website discussions linking the attacks to Wilders in the same way as Wilders tars all Muslims with a terrorist brush. But this sort of ‘guilt by association’ is an ‘idiotic reflex’.
‘People are always responsible for their own deeds’, whether inspired by the Bible, the Koran, communism or whatever, the paper quotes him as saying.
Trouw
Newspaper Trouw says the fact that the perpetrator is a white man who calls himself a convicted Christian conservative, is new.
‘This is not a dangerious or isolated nutcase but a political extremist; someone whose convictions have been fed by ideas from all sorts of right-wing groups, from the Tea Party in the US to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands,’ the paper says.
‘The PVV leader directly distanced himself from the attacks,’ Trouw writes. ‘But it is clear that conservative Christian thinking can manifest itself in radicalisation and terrorist deeds. And that should get everyone thinking.’

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