Michiel Smit

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Michiel Smit (Maasland, Netherlands, 21 August 1976) is a Dutch politician and leader of Nieuw Rechts, a conservative political party.

[edit] Political office

Michiel Smit was elected to the Rotterdam city council in 2002 as a member of Leefbaar Rotterdam. In February 2003, he came into conflict with Leefbaar-Rotterdam leader Ronald Sörensen and decided to leave the party. After leaving, he founded a new party: Nieuw Rechts.

His party holds no seats in parliament and, according some journalists who cite recent polls^{[citation needed]}, has no hope of changing this at the next elections of the 22nd of November.

[edit] Views

He released his first book "Nederland op z'n kop" in June 2004, just before the European elections. In the book he outlines his views on Dutch society and describes what he sees as the threat of Muslim extremists in the Netherlands.

In his latest book, "Veiligheid, doe het ZELF", Smit says that handguns should be legalised in the Netherlands and that doing so will lead to less violent crime.

Smit has made statements against immigration and Islam, as some journalists have said^{[citation needed]} that he has associated with the white nationalist organisation Stormfront. In 2003 Smit started to cooperate with the Jewish Defense League ^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Former Leefbaar Nederland lijsttrekker Haitske van de Linde called Michiel Smit "about the greatest neo-Nazi of Dutch politics" in the television program BvD in 2002. Although first fined for making this statement by a court, Haitske van de Linde fought this case through on appeal, and was cleared from wrong-doing by a court in 2005. After this verdict, Haitske van de Linde said "Smit owed it to himself to be qualified like this."