Dutch singer and performer Herman van Veen has received thousands of hatemails from Geert Wilders' supporters after he said that the controversial politician's anti-Muslim Freedom Party is at risk of becoming like the Nazi-era NSB party.

The e-mails "contained very nasty things" in response to Mr Van Veen's warning against the undemocratic structure of Mr Wilders' Freedom Party.

Dutch anti-Islam opposition MP Geert Wilders disapproves of any threats his followers may have uttered against the singer. "He should not be threatened, and if he has been, I find that most objectionable," the leader of the Freedom Party said.

The Berlin Wall
Monday's edition of the populist daily De Telegraaf reported on a speech Mr Van Veen, who is 64, gave at a a meeting in Utrecht to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mr Van Veen reminded his audience that the Freedom Party does not accept members and is financed only by donations, not by fees. "Such a party is a threat to democracy," he said.
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On his own website, Herman van Veen explained his view. His remarks on Sunday were prompted by reminiscences of a politically controversial interview he gave in East Berlin in 1989, three weeks before the Wall fell. The East-German reporter got into trouble with the communist authorities over the interview. Looking back at those events,
"I expressed my concern about the old totalitarian systems and said we must make sure that the structure of political parties is based on democratic principles. I want to explain that the Freedom Party should not become like the NSB. The history of one person should not become the future of another. In my view, the Freedom Party is not a political party, but an association, a movement, where one single man decides. That is not democratic. Hence my concern. The character of the thousands of reactions I am receiving is confirming my worries."

The NSB was the Dutch pro-Nazi party between 1931 and 1945.

Demonising
Geert Wilders' lawyer, Bram Moszkowicz, said in a reaction on prime time TV that Van Veen's words are "farcical" and added, "I am tempted to use the words 'infamous' and 'abject'." The artist's remarks "have insulted two million people," Mr Moskowicz added, in a reference to the estimated following of the Freedom Party. He warned against the danger of "demonising" Geert Wilders. "It could lead to an attack. Demonised people have been killed in the past," he said, referring to the assassination of popular maverick politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002.

The media-savvy lawyer refuted any hints to Nazi tendencies in the Freedom Party by pointing to a meeting Geert Wilders recently had in the US with prominent Jewish writer Elie Wiesel. "Mr Wiesel would never have sat down with an NSB leader," Mr Moszkowicz said.

Freedom
So why is Mr Wilders' Freedom Party a one-man band without party members? "If there was a membership, all kinds of shadowy figures would be able to destroy the Freedom Party from within," Mr Moskowicz explained. Mr Wilders himself has not reacted to the statements, the lawyer said, because he thinks everyone in the Netherlands is entitled to speak out in public.

Reactions on De Telegraaf's website point out that Geert Wilders is constantly referring to his freedom of expression when making statements seen by many as hate-mongering. But when someone else, like Herman van Veen, uses that same freedom, Mr Wilders' followers rise in anger. Respondents also claim that the entire row was caused by De Telegraaf's incorrect reporting of Mr Van Veen's words.

Photo: Herman van Veen (Photo: Wim Kempenaers)