Dutch Labor Party’s Rise May Hinder Anti-Islam Party - by Jurjen van de Pol

Rising support for the Dutch opposition Labor Party is putting it in a dead heat with Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrats and may block an anti-Islam party’s bid for power in June elections.

Labor candidate Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam, was officially named party leader at a congress today in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His surprise candidacy sent the Labor Party, which favors lifting taxes on the highest earners, from third place to the top of opinion polls. Labor’s rise coincides with the slump to fourth place of Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, which wants to ban headscarves and new mosques.

“It was ingenious for Labor to put forward Cohen,” Andre Krouwel, who teaches political science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, said in an interview. “He has a double image; drinking tea with minorities combined with a tough stance on immigration when he was state secretary of justice.”

For more: Dutch Labor Party’s Rise May Hinder Anti-Islam Party (Update1) - BusinessWeek