Geert Wilders, who leads the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) in Holland, said last week he believes Jordan should be renamed Palestine. The Jordanian government responded by saying Wilders’ speech brought to mind the Israeli right wing, according to a report on Ynet.

“There has been an independent Palestinian state since 1946, and it is the kingdom of Jordan,” said the outspoken politician. Wilders also called on the Dutch government to refer to Jordan as Palestine and move its embassy from Ramat Gan to Jerusalem.

The Saudi Al-Watan carried Jordan’s response to Wilders’ speech. The kingdom’s embassy in Hague was outraged, and said the Dutch ambassador would soon be summoned to explain.

The other day, at 13:20 hours and after 16 hours of manually counting the 9 million cast votes, the 9th of June 2010 Dutch general elections were finally no longer “too close to call”. For the first time the Liberal Party (VVD), lead by Mark Rutte, an historian and a very happy bachelor of 43, did win: 31 seats against 30 seats for Job Cohen’s Social Democrats (PvdA). Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) added an unprecedented 15 seats and became third with 24 seats, wrong footing every analyst domestic and abroad. Jan-Peter Balkenende’s Christian Democrats (CDA) didn’t cause any surprise and were annihilated. Balkenende, prime minister for 8 years and 4 Cabinets, stepped down immediately after acknowledging CDA’s loss of 20 seats –leaving the party a shameful fourth position and an all time low of 21 seats.

Holland - long seen as a liberal, pot-smoking hippie hang-out - seems keen to defend the culture that’s made it so free, to judge from this week’s election:

With 88 per cent of the votes counted, published partial results showed the Liberals with 31 and Labour on 30.

Geert Wilders, the controversial anti-Islamic Dutch politician, came third behind tied Liberal and Labour parties after elections in the Netherlands left no obvious winner or combination for a coalition government.