Dutch politician targets Moroccan ‘scum’

Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders has launched his election campaign by calling some Moroccans ‘scum’. He has vowed to ban Muslim immigration and shut mosques if he wins. BBC News reports that his latest comments come two months after he was convicted in a hate speech trial over his promise to reduce the number of Moroccans in the country. ‘There is a lot of Moroccan scum in Holland who make the streets unsafe,’ he said. According to the 2011 census, there were more than 167 000 Moroccan-born residents of the Netherlands, making up the third-largest group of non-EU residents. The report says Wilders tops opinion polls ahead of the 15 March parliamentary vote, but has seen his lead reduced in recent weeks.