AMSTERDAM — MP Geert Wilders was threatened with a suicide attack last week. Two young men reportedly planned to shoot the politician down and detonate a van full of explosives next to the politician. “Many innocent people were to die in the chaos.”
This has emerged from the report Wilders filed with the Haaglanden police. A warning of the attack planned for either The Hague or Amsterdam came via the anonymous hotline for crime tips. A similar, but less detailed, death threat came in via the hotline this week. It is unusual for this hotline to be used to announce death threats.
The initial, very concrete warning spoke about an attack planned for early February. Wilders would first be shot, and then a man would drive a white delivery van into the victim and detonate the 500 to 600 kilos of explosives in the vehicle.
The perpetrators reportedly got the explosives from a contact in the military. The rest of the material was bought on the last Monday in January from DIY chain Gamma in The Hague.
The person who called the hotline said that the perpetrators were not fundamentalists, but “just wanted revenge.” Wilders has been under heavy personal protection for some time and says that the number of threats to his person have doubled since his party won nine seats in the parliamentary elections in November.