He has been called the Dutch Donald Trump, threatened with death countless times by Islamic extremists, convicted of insulting Moroccans, and Britain once banned him from entering the country. Oh, and he loves his two cats.
Now Geert Wilders could become the next Dutch Prime Minister.
The political firebrand has long been active in Dutch politics and will become the longest-serving member of the country’s parliament later this year.
His stance on the EU, immigration and foreign policy – seen by many as extreme – had long led to him being shunned and marginalized by opposition parties. He has promised to hold a referendum on “Nexit,” reduce asylum and immigration to the Netherlands and curb what he calls “Islamization.”
In addition, over the past two decades, his life has been threatened by Islamic extremists, he has been convicted of insulting Moroccans and turned away from London’s Heathrow Airport because of his extreme views.
Despite his views, he pulled off a stunning upset today with his sixth election attempt, putting himself in pole position to form the country’s next governing coalition.
An election poll revealing his landslide victory appeared to surprise even the 60-year-old political veteran Wilders. “I had to pinch my arm,” said a jubilant Wilders.
In his first reaction, posted in a video on social media, he spread his arms, put his face in his hands and simply said “35!” – the number of seats an election poll predicted his party would win Freedom (PVV) would win in the lower house of parliament with 150 seats.
Wilders and his party still face an uphill battle to form a coalition as leaders of other major parties previously ruled out working with him. However, it is far from impossible and he will get the first chance to form a government.
So what can the Netherlands and the rest of Europe expect from a Wilders-led government? Here Web highlights what he and his PVV party stand for.
He has been called the Dutch Donald Trump, threatened with death countless times by Islamic extremists, convicted of insulting Moroccans, and Britain once banned him from entering the country. Oh, and he loves his two cats. Now Geert Wilders (pictured on Wednesday evening as the election polls came in) could become the next Dutch prime minister
Wilders, with his fiery tongue, has long been one of the best-known Dutch lawmakers at home and abroad. His populist politics and peroxide blonde hair have drawn comparisons to former US President Donald Trump.
But unlike Trump, he seemed destined to spend his life in the political opposition.
The only time Wilders came close to forming a government was when he supported the first coalition formed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte in 2010.
But Wilders did not officially join the minority government and toppled it after just 18 months in office in a dispute over austerity measures.
Since then he has been shunned by mainstream parties.
They can’t do it anymore.
“The PVV wants to work with other parties from a fantastic position of 35 seats that no party can ignore any longer,” he told cheering supporters at his election celebration in a small bar in a working-class suburb of The Hague.
He also called on other parties to sit down at the table. Whether he will be able to form a stable coalition with former political opponents remains to be seen.
His heated anti-Islam rhetoric has not only angered establishment politicians, but also made him a target for extremists and resulted in him being under round-the-clock protection for years.
As Wilders voted in The Hague City Hall on Wednesday, he was flanked by burly security guards scanning the cavernous room for possible threats.
He has moved from one place of safety to another over nearly two decades and appeared in court as a victim of death threats, vowing never to be silenced.
But he has also gotten into trouble for his own rhetoric.
In 2009, the British government barred him from entering the country on the grounds that he posed a threat to “community harmony and therefore public safety.”
He was turned away after landing at London’s Heathrow Airport in February that year.
Wilders was invited to Britain by a member of the House of Lords to show his 15-minute film “Fitna,” which criticizes the Koran as a “fascist book.”
The film sparked violent protests in the Muslim world in 2008 because it linked Quranic verses with footage of terrorist attacks.
The British Asylum and Immigration Tribunal subsequently overturned the decision after Wilders challenged the decision, describing the ruling at the time as a “fantastic decision”.
He was later found guilty of discrimination in 2016 after leading a crowd chanting for “fewer” Moroccans in the Netherlands. He previously compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and said both books should be banned.
Wilders was also forced to shelve plans for a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition in 2018 after receiving death threats.
In 2021, Turkish prosecutors investigated comments made by Wilders after he called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “terrorist.”
At the time, he called on the Dutch prime minister to expel the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands and called for Turkey to be expelled from NATO.
Turkish officials did not hold back in their response.
“This fascist who attacked our president would have been a damn Nazi if he had lived during World War II.” “If he lived in the Middle East now, he would be a Daesh murderer,” said Omer Celik, a spokesman from Erdogan’s AK Party, on Twitter.
Wilders is seen at London’s Heathrow Airport in February 2009, when he was refused entry to Britain because of his extreme views
Wilders is escorted by police after arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport in October 2009 after his ban on entering the United Kingdom was lifted
Wilders (right) and his lawyer Bram Moszkowicz (left) are seen at the courthouse in Amsterdam, Netherlands on January 20, 2010
Who is Geert Wilders?
Wilders was born in 1963 in the south of Venlo near the German border and grew up in a Catholic family with his brother and two sisters.
His mother was half Indonesian, a fact Wilders rarely mentions.
In the 1980s he developed an interest in politics, his older brother Paul told Der Spiegel magazine.
“At that time he was neither clearly left nor right, nor was he xenophobic.” “But he was fascinated by the political game, the fight for power and influence,” said Paul Wilders.
His hatred of Islam seemed to have developed slowly. He spent time on a kibbutz in Israel and experienced first-hand the tensions with the Palestinians.
He was also shocked by the assassinations of far-right leader Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and radical anti-Islam filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004.
“I remember my legs shaking with shock and outrage,” he wrote in a 2012 book about the news of Van Gogh’s murder.
“I can honestly say I felt anger, not fear.”
He has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1998, initially for the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, where he mentored the young Rutte before quitting the party in 2006 and forming his Party for Freedom. In 2017 it became the second largest in Parliament and fell to the third largest in 2021.
This year he took part in the election for the sixth time, almost causing a surprise more than once.
“When I left my old party (the VVD) … I said that one day we will become the largest party,” Wilders told reporters as he cast his vote on Wednesday.
If the election polls are confirmed, his decades-old prediction appears to have come true.
Wilders is known for his tough politics, but also for his witty one-liners.
He showed a softer side on Wednesday night by thanking his Hungarian-born wife Krisztina, whom he married in 1992, for her support. Compared to her husband’s life in the spotlight, Krisztina has rarely appeared in public.
He also loves his pets very much. His two cats Snoetje and Pluisje have their own account on X, formerly Twitter, with almost 23,000 followers.
It is the only account that Wilders himself follows on the platform.
Wilders loves his cats Snoetje and Pluisje very much. They have their own X account (formerly Twitter) with almost 23,000 followers
What are Geert Wilders’ policies?
To woo majority voters ahead of Wednesday’s general election, Wilders toned down Islamophobic rhetoric and sought to focus less on what he calls the “de-Islamization” of the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, the PVV party made its stance on Islam clear in its manifesto.
“By reducing the flow of asylum and immigration to the Netherlands, the Islamization of our country will also be reduced,” says the election manifesto.
“The Netherlands is not an Islamic country: no Islamic schools, Korans and mosques.” “We want less Islam in the Netherlands and we can achieve that through: less non-Western immigration and the introduction of a general ban on asylum.”
There is also a call for a “ban on wearing Islamic scarves in government buildings”.
The party also proposes an “asylum freeze” and a “generally more restrictive immigration policy” as well as an exit from EU asylum and migration regulations.
The party wants to restore Dutch border controls and turn away asylum seekers who want to enter the Netherlands from “safe neighboring countries”.
Illegal immigrants are being arrested and deported, and Syrians with temporary asylum permits are being revoked because “parts of Syria are now safe.” Refugees with residence permits lose them “if they go on holiday in their country of origin”.
EU citizens will need a work permit and the number of foreign students will be reduced, the manifesto says.
On Wednesday evening he promised not to violate Dutch laws or the country’s constitution, which enshrines freedom of religion and expression.
Wilder’s campaign also aimed to increase focus on tackling pressing issues such as a housing shortage, a cost of living crisis and access to good healthcare.
But his platform also called for a binding referendum on the Netherlands’ exit from the European Union, known as “Nexit.”
The PVV says it wants “a sovereign country, a country that has its own currency and its own borders and sets its own rules.”
The party therefore rejects any form of “political union” such as the EU – “an institution that grabs more and more power, sucks up taxpayer money and imposes dictates on us.”
Wilders hugged a PVV politician colleague as the results were announced on Wednesday
“The PVV wants a binding referendum on Nexit,” the idea that the Netherlands could leave the EU.
Until such a referendum, the Netherlands wants to become a net recipient of EU money and not a net contributor. The party also rejects any further EU expansion and wants to restore its veto right in Brussels.
Ultimately, the PVV wants to tear down the EU flag from government buildings.
“We are in the Netherlands.” “Only the national flag flies here.”
In foreign policy, the parallels with Trump are clear.
“Netherlands first,” said the manifesto.
Wilders has repeatedly said the Netherlands should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying the country needs the weapons to defend itself.
“We have to find ways to live up to the hopes of our voters and get the Dutch back to number one,” said Wilders.
The party says: “Our guiding principle is: act in the interests of the Netherlands and the Dutch people.” “Our own country comes first.”
The PVV is a “great friend of the only true democracy in the Middle East: Israel,” says the manifesto, which is particularly relevant given the ongoing conflict there.
“Relations with Israel will be strengthened, among other things, by moving our embassy to Jerusalem.” Such a move is seen as controversial in the Arab world because Israel conquered East Jerusalem in 1967.
At the same time, Wilders promises to close the Dutch representation in Ramallah, home of the “corrupt Palestinian Authority.”
Diplomatic relations with countries with Sharia law and from which Dutch MPs have received death threats will be severed “immediately”.
When it comes to climate, the PVV has resisted green policies.
“We have been instilled with fear of climate change for decades… We must stop being afraid,” says the PVV manifesto.
The Dutch have the best water engineers in the world and there is no need to panic about rising sea levels, the document says.
The manifesto calls for greater oil and gas production from the North Sea and keeping coal and gas power plants open.
“The PVV also supports the rapid construction of new nuclear power plants.”
Wilders votes during the Dutch general election in The Hague on November 22, 2023
Europe’s shift to the right
The rise of the PVV, regardless of whether the party can form a coalition government or not, is seen by many as the latest sign of a shift to the right across Europe.
The party’s historic victory came a year after the triumph of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy roots were steeped in nostalgia for fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Since then, Ms Meloni has softened her stance on several issues and has become the acceptable face of the hard right in the EU.
Support for the extreme right is also growing in countries like Germany given poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with immigration policy.
There has also been a trend towards more conservative governments in recent elections in other countries such as Sweden and Finland.
The victory drew immediate congratulations from fellow far-right leaders in France and Hungary, but is likely to raise fears in Brussels about a possible Nexit.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed “winds of change” after the exit poll, while France’s Marine Le Pen hailed his “spectacular performance.”
“Because there are people who refuse to see the national torch go out, the hope for change remains alive in Europe,” Le Pen said.
Wilders reacts to the results of the House of Representatives elections in Scheveningen, Netherlands, November 22, 2023
Orban, who boasts of turning Hungary into an “illiberal” state and takes a similar tough stance on migration and EU institutions to Wilders.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wilders’ expected election victory was a consequence of “all the fears that are emerging in Europe” about immigration and the economy. However, Le Maire also said on Franceinfo radio on Thursday that “the Netherlands is not France”.
Dutch media have already noticed the shift to the right in the Netherlands.
The Financieele Dagblad said the result “turns politics in The Hague on its head”, while the daily NRC described it as a “right-wing populist revolt that will shake the Binnenhof to its foundations”, referring to the government district in The Hague.