![]() “We are a country with a deeply tolerant tradition but it is an opportunistic tolerance,” says Taco Dibbits, the newly appointed director of the Rijksmuseum. Yet Europe’s most liberal nation may be about to vote for a far-right prime minister. The Netherlands is a country that has decriminalised prostitution, has one of the most liberal drugs policies and has long been touted as a model of multiculturalism. Virulently anti-Islam and anti-immigrant, Wilders’ form of populism has won support in a nation that prides itself on consensus and compromise. For the past year one party has been leading the polls: the far-right PVV headed by Geert Wilders. The question of just how liberal the Netherlands is will be answered early next year when the Dutch hold a general election. ![]() “Really,” he says, “we are not a tolerant nation.” But Wijnberg, a leading Dutch journalist who set up an online news organisation called De Correspondent three years ago, is aware that Amsterdam is a bubble. “But we’re discovering that we’re only that way on paper, in law not in practice, not in daily life.” We’re sat in an Amsterdam café filled with people who fit that self-image: it’s racially mixed, young and cool. ![]() ![]() “We have this self-image: progressive, liberal, multicultural, blah blah blah,” says Rob Wijnberg, waving his arms about in exasperation. By Steve Bloomfield Photography Ben Roberts ![]()
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