Michiel Smit (born 21 August 1976) is a former Dutch politician who was leader of Nieuw Rechts, a far-right political party.

Political office

Michiel Smit was elected to the

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

city council in 2002 as a member of Leefbaar Rotterdam. In February 2003, he came into conflict with Leefbaar-Rotterdam leader

Ronald Sørensen Ronald Sørensen (born 4 May 1947) is a Dutch politician. He was a founder of the Livable Rotterdam party and also served in the Senate (Netherlands), Senate for the Party for Freedom between 2011 and 2015. Early life Sørensen is of Norwegia ...

and decided to leave the party. After leaving, he founded a new party: Nieuw Rechts.

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 Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. In 2003 Smit started to cooperate with the Jewish Defense League, citing the danger to both from the

Arab European League The Arab European League ( Dutch: ''Arabisch-Europese Liga'', AEL) was a Pan-Arabist political organisation active in Belgium and the Netherlands.

. In the same year he demonstrated in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

against the pedophile association Vereniging MARTIJN as a leader of the Actiecomité Stop MARTIJN. In 2004, photos of Smit hanging out with

white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...

friends started circulating on the internet. The following year, he lost a libel case that he started against a talk show guest who had called him a

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

in 2002. The judge ruled that Smit had given ample reason for the qualification.

References

External links

*
Official website of Michiel Smit

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

(Dec. 2002 - Oct. 2006) {{DEFAULTSORT:Smit, Michiel 1976 births Livable Rotterdam politicians Living people Municipal councillors of Rotterdam Neo-Nazi politicians in the Netherlands People from Midden-Delfland People from Rotterdam Politicians from Rotterdam