John Derbyshire's latest podcast [transcript | audio] includes this(Links added by me):

They had an election in the Netherlands, and the result was … interesting. On a proportional representation system, the center-right party got 31 seats in parliament, the center-left party got 30. With a bit of horse-trading, the center-right guy, Mark Rutte, can form a government.

The real news, though, was that Geert Wilders Freedom Party was close behind both these centrist parties with 24 seats in parliament. Wilders is the guy who wants to stop all non-European immigration into the Netherlands. He's also the guy who made the powerfully anti-islamic movie Fitna, for which he will be tried in a criminal court later this year on charges of "inciting hatred and discrimination."

In Europe, it is becoming common for immigration restrictionist politicians to be attacked by the government for their opinions. This has happened to Nick Griffin of the BNP, [Then They Came For Nick Griffin]

It happened to the Vlaams Blok, a party with "18 MPs in the 150-seat Belgian parliament, many local councilors and two MEPs [Members of the European Parliament]," which was actually banned by a Belgian court decision.[It Happened There; etc]

There is now a party called the Vlaams Belang—it hasn't been banned yet, but it could be.

A Flemish demonstration on September 11, 2007 was brutally attacked by French-speaking riot police in a city ruled by a majority-Muslim city council: Patriots Arrested In Islamic-Occupied Brussels and Is Belgium Breaking Up? By Patrick J. Buchanan

Jean-Marie Le Pen keeps being prosecuted in France for one remark or another—a 2004 story about his being fined 10, 000 Euros for anti-Muslim speech said that he'd been convicted of "racism or anti-Semitism" at least six times. [Le Pen convicted of inciting racial hatred for anti-Muslim remarks , 04-02-2004]

The whole "hate laws" situation in Europe means that the Establishment parties can crush dissident parties, not by beating them at the polls, but by beating them in court. (Or in the case of the Flemings vs. Brussels riot police, simply by beating them.)

See ”The Darkest Corners Of Our World”?–Bush Can Start With Europe’s Hate Crime Crackdown, by Paul Belien.

What this means is that when we at VDARE.com tell you that hate crimes laws are a problem, we're not exaggerating.