Door: Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/10/europe/EU_GEN_Netherlands_Pedophiles.php
Datum: dinsdag, 10 oktober 2006
The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands A Dutch political group dubbed the "pedophile party," whose platform included lowering the age of sexual consent to 12 and legalizing child pornography, will not take part in next month's national elections, it said Tuesday.
Under electoral regulations, the Party for Brotherly Love, Freedom and Diversity had until Tuesday to collect 570 signatures from supporters to allow it to nominate candidates, but it failed to do so.
In a statement on its Web site, the party said it "has not received enough supporter declarations and will therefore not take part in the coming parliamentary elections."
The statement said the party would try to take part in the next elections scheduled in four years.
The party, known by its Dutch acronym PNVD won a legal battle against anti-child abuse activists for the right to take part in the poll with a Hague court saying it had no power to ban the party because it did not openly advocate breaking laws, only changing them.
The group would have needed around 60,000 votes to win a single seat in the 150-member Dutch parliament, and pollsters estimated it would have gotten fewer than 1,000 votes.
In its statement the PNVD said it hoped for a "change of mentality in the mass media" saying it hoped they would "report not only minority viewpoints but also objectively report the arguments in their favor."