The Netherlands: Freedom of Speech

A lot of people consider the Netherlands as a very tolerant country, but is that always the case? In the Netherlands there are a lot of political figures who are not afraid to share their opinions. In this article we'll discuss the infamous politicus, Geert Wilders.
Geert Wilders is the chairman of the group PVV (Partij voor de vrijheid = group for the freedom). In 2014 during the local elections he made a remark which shocked a lot of people. He held a speech in which he literally said: "Fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?". And the croud shouted fewer. Lots of people were upset and mad about the fact that an important politicus could say something like that. A lot of Moroccans live in the Netherlands and they openly showed their resentment after this statement. A lawsuit followed soon after and is still ongoing. He didn´t get a punishment but he was found guilty. This wasn't the first time that Wilders was sued for something he had said. 

But is it right that he is being sued for stating his opinion? In the Netherlands we have freedom of speech but we also have other laws which prohibit to discriminate. Was this saying a form of discrimination? We believe so, because Geert Wilders wasn' t focussing on the behaviour of certain people but solely on a race. He literally said he wanted to exclude a certain group of people. You have freedom of speech, but you can' t discriminate. But where do we draw the line between these two things?

We personally think that it should be prohibited to mention a whole race as one, because every person is different. These kind of remarks lead to biases which can make ones life very difficult.

Eventhough freedom of speech is very important to us. We believe that everyone should try to state his or her opinion in a way that others won´t get offended.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean  you don't have to think anymore about what you say. You should always think your opinions through to overcome biases.