Freedom Party (PVV) candidate Carlo de Bruin has withdrawn from the North Holland provincial elections. The party leadership says he was de-selected after it was discovered that he has two previous drink driving convictions.

The PVV suffered adverse publicity recently when it was revealed that a number of its MPs had covered up previous criminal offences. The populist anti-Islam party favours tough law and order policies.

Mr De Bruin says he only has one drink driving conviction. He claims the real reason for his being dropped from the PVV list of candidates is a business project recruiting young Muslim women for the healthcare sector.

Islamic veil
Mr De Bruin was married to an Iranian woman for 20 years and decided to put the knowledge he had gained about Islam to good use. He applied for government subsidies to launch the project to get Muslim women jobs in healthcare. The women would be allowed to wear Islamic headscarves while at work. The PVV is fiercely opposed to the Islamic veil.

He believes up to 200,000 Muslim women, many of them currently on welfare, could work in the sector which will need an estimated 500,000 extra workers in the coming years. Mr De Bruin believes having more Muslims healthcare workers will help improve their image and their integration into Dutch society.

The project has brought him into conflict with the PVV leadership which categorically rejects 'nonsensical subsidies' for multicultural projects. Mr De Bruin says that, although he admires the energy of PVV leader Geert Wilders, the party’s structure is too hierarchical and most of its MPs have too little political experience.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide