Last Monday may have been the official Blue Monday, in the Netherlands depression set in as early as Sunday. And with Wilders putting sand in the national engine of growth it can only get worse, thinks Herb Prooy.

On the Sunday morning news programme Buitenhof prime minister Mark Rutte predicted economic doom and gloom for the near future and said we would all feel the pain.
Kick-start
According to Rutte the most acute pangs can be avoided but only if we can kick-start our economic growth engine. In Dutch terms this means stimulating exports.
Exports account for 70 % of the Dutch GNP. Compared to an average of 25% for all the other OECD countries, that makes the Netherlands predominantly reliant on exports.
Export growth is not expected to originate from any other European country and will have to come from other world regions. If we want any of it to end up in the Netherlands we will have continue to live up to our image of a reliable and respectful trading partner.
Book
On April 30th, a day traditionally set aside to celebrate the queen’s birthday, PVV leader Geert Wilders is going to present his new book Marked for Death: Islam’s War against the West and Me. In order to generate as much publicity as possible the book is being published in the United States.
It’s working. This week Newsweek published a lengthy article on the politician. The popular magazine described him as cynical and self-important and the author of the piece wonders if he can be stopped before he can do any real harm.
Fortunately Wilders has freedom of speech in the Netherlands but the question is if he should use it so profusely. Is it really wise to vent his harsh and one-sided views on the planet’s second largest religion? There are more than 1.7bn Muslims world-wide.
Repercussions
Wilders is clearly associated with the Dutch government in the article and this has repercussions for the way international community sees the Netherlands.
Is Wilders ever going to wonder whether it is at all possible that the economic interests of his country might be more important than his fame as an Islam basher?
And if he doesn’t, when will Rutte finally distance himself from this man and the party which legitimises his government and compromises it at the same time? When is Rutte going to decide that spending power, jobs and Henk and Ingrid’s pensions should prevail over the interests of a fame hungry politician who cares for nothing but his own personal goals?
Herb Prooy is an entrepreneur in the field of ‘software as a service’