Edwin Wagensveld, leader of PEGIDA and Constant Kusters of the conservative Dutch People’s Union (NVU) were also on the spot to express their dissatisfaction. Wilders praised to large turnout on Twitter.
“The man who believes that agents must be able to speak Turkish or Arabic and advocate that police should wear headscarves, but finds that PVVs should not be appointed to the police force. That man is now the police chief. Scandalous!” Wilders exclaimed.
According to Wilders, Marcouch wants to turn Amsterdam Nieuw-West into “an Islamic district” and is the PvdA’s “fan of Muslim brother radical al-Qaradawi”.
The police were present with dozens of agents as well as on horseback. The demonstration drew between three and four hundred people.
Police arrested a group of about fifty counter-demonstrators with banners reading: “It smells here like the 1930s.” The PVV group had a banner calling for no “Arnhemistan”. There were some scuffles between opponents, but only one man was arrested for abuse. During his arrest, he resisted in such a way that an agent was wounded.
Wilders’ supporters from Zaanstad and Leiden came to Arnhem, but did not get to see much of the well-protected PVV leader. He remained at a distance, calling, among other things, Marcouch, “a liar, who says he is a bridge-builder, but who actually turns people against each other.”
The city council of the Gelder capital proposed Marcouch on Monday as mayor from September 1st. The PvdA member had served in the Lower House from 2010 to 2017. But Wilders said he found it ridiculous that Arnhem elected a PvdA mayor, while the number of Arnhem PvdA voters have dropped from 30 to 6 percent. “Marcouch does not belong in the capital of the largest province of the Netherlands,” said Wilders.
Aardige opkomst bij #Wilders in #Arnhem. Er wordt vaak "eigen volk eerst" geroepen, 1 incident gezien waar een aanhanger "oprotten" riep. pic.twitter.com/fF0LU05gzy
— David Saelmans (@vermoedelijk) July 5, 2017
Ahmed Marcouch wanted to join the jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with Trouw, he recounted how he had watched videos of Muslim warriors with other youngsters.
As a 13-year-old scholar Marcouch joined his older brother in a radical youth association with young people from Morocco, Egypt, Sudan and Somalia. They sang battle songs, collected for the jihad and recited from the Quran. “We felt solidarity with the oppressed Afghans,” says Marcouch.
We raken ons land kwijt en moeten het terugveroveren.
Geweldige opkomst in Arnhem bij protest tegen Marcouch als burgemeester. pic.twitter.com/kxZeFuoMZl
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) July 5, 2017
Marcouch said the energy of the radicals he experienced was very contagious.
Nowadays, social media according to Marcouch has come closer to the jihad struggle. That is one of the reasons why larger numbers of young people join the jihad.
He explained that Muslim parents were happy to radicalise their children, because they prefer religion to alcohol or drugs. He also admitted that parents in Islamic primary schools stay remarkably quiet when it comes to radical ideas.