Geert Wilders, the Dutch right-wing extremist who won the Dutch elections on November 22nd, is an old acquaintance of Dutch politics. He is 60 years old, has been a member of parliament for 25 years and is easily recognizable by his peroxided hair. If there are no changes, he will be the longest-serving member of Congress, which must be constituted on December 6. His rejection of Islam, which he considers a “fascist ideology,” shaped his ideology even before 2006, the founding date of his Party for Freedom (PVV). At its head, he won the extreme right’s first victory in his country since 1945. Quite a challenge in one of the founding members of the European Union.
With 37 representatives in a 150-member parliament, Wilders – pronounced Vilders – is already at the forefront of his unredeemed extremism and wants to form a center-right government that is not emerging as quickly as he would like. The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is only willing to support him from outside the executive branch. The conservative New Social Contract, the other possible natural partner, does not trust in the respect for the laws now proclaimed by a Wilders who claims to have moderated. The Farmers-Citizens Movement (BBB), the voice of agrarian populism, has no qualms about reaching an agreement but will wait for a new round of trial and error.
Citizens’ dissatisfaction with politics favored him, although in 2020 he was found guilty of insulting citizens of Moroccan origin. Everyone knows him in his homeland, but who is Geert Wilders really?
He was born in Venlo in the south of the country into a middle-class family with two sisters and a brother. His father was assistant manager of the Océ photocopy factory. His mother was born during the Dutch colonization in what is now Indonesia and is of Indo-Dutch origins. Wilders has stated that his parents were “very hardworking” and taught him to “persevere,” and avoids delving into his personal history. His brother Paul, ten years older than him, rejects his ideas, although he assures: “I would hug him if we saw each other because I love him.”
As Dutch anthropologist Lizzy van Leeuwen explains over the phone, Wilders’ family history could partly explain his attitude to Islam. Grandfather Johan Ording married Annie Meijer, who has Indonesian roots. In 1934, he was fired from his job as a civil servant in Java because of a fraud case. In an essay published in the progressive magazine De Groene Amsterdammer in 2017, the expert says they had eight children – including the politician’s mother – and the family was sent to Europe with no possibility of returning. They fell into poverty and moved via France, later ending up in the Netherlands. It wasn’t until Johan got a job in the prison service years later that they managed to turn things around.
In colonial times, Indonesia was referred to as the Dutch East Indies and, according to Van Leeuwen, “families often tell these stories from the past, and the Netherlands never recognized the post-colonial influence on national political life.” “There was no critical debate about these either Phase like in France, Belgium or the United Kingdom.” According to Van Leeuwen, Wilders expresses a revanchist voice. “And I don’t know if that family trauma is the driving force, but it’s there. On the other hand, it has a natural prevention against Islam,” he emphasizes.
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After independence, recognized by the Netherlands in 1949 after a bloody armed struggle, Indonesia became a republic whose population is now predominantly Muslim. The anthropologist points out that “Wilders, with his Javanese features and natural dark hair, may have faced discrimination in his own country, and that is why he made it clear.” “In any case, one must be careful with such assumptions,” he warns . The right-wing extremist leader assured on television that he had been on oxygen since he was 20 years old.
After graduating from high school in Venlo, Wilders, a poor student and rebel, as he bluntly admits, went to Israel at the age of 17. Between 1981 and 1983 he worked in a moshav, an agricultural cooperative settlement, and this experience sealed his sympathies for the country. At the same time, he traveled through the Middle East and began to consolidate an opinion contrary to Islam. After military service he took a course in health insurance, completed a law degree at the Open University and worked for two government health institutes.
He then moved to Utrecht, a neighborhood full of immigrants, and in 1997 was a city councilor for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). In 1998 he won a seat in parliament and was another member of parliament until 2004. This year, a Dutch Islamist of Moroccan origin murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who directed Submission, a film about the oppression of women in Islam, in Amsterdam. The script was written by Somali MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who also received death threats. Wilders then called for a stop to Muslim immigration, attacked the Koran and began to gain followers. He is threatened by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) and lives surrounded by bodyguards.
His career took a turn when the VVD supported Turkey’s accession to the EU in 2004: he returned his membership card and worked as an independent MP. In 2006 he founded the Freedom Party, which won 24 seats in 2010, becoming the second force behind the VVD itself. It reached 20 in 2017 and 17 until the last elections. Its program states that the Western way of life is “threatened by the arrival of large numbers of people, often from Islamic countries”. And he explains: “The flow of asylum costs the taxpayer 24 billion euros a year and it is time to put the Dutch first.” But he claims he has softened. This allowed it to far outperform the rest of the games. The runner-up – the alliance of environmentalists and social democrats (GroenLinks-PvdA) – has 25 seats.
Matthijs Rooduijn, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam, emphasizes: “His style is more moderate, but the content of his program is as radical as ever.” “He has very cleverly presented himself as a potential coalition partner, and many of those who have previously supported the “The people who voted for the VVD turned to Wilders.” The polls show that the strategic vote benefited the PVV. “Voters know that when they vote for parties that are more radical than themselves, policies are likely to go in the direction they want to reach a compromise. And immigration is a key issue for many,” he says. With regard to Wilders’ proposed Nexit – the exit of the Netherlands from the EU – the political scientist expresses his skepticism: “A new government may have doubts about European integration, but without leaving the EU.” Wilders differs from some of his European ones Colleagues by supporting the rights of homosexuals or not showing anti-Semitism.
He has been married to Krisztina Marfai, a diplomat of Hungarian origin, since 1992 and does not spend two nights in the same house to avoid attack. He has no children and Election Day was his first memory of them. Could he serve as prime minister under these conditions? “Most likely he would like to be, but in a country of coalitions he cannot decide on his own,” recalls Rooduijn. Anthropologist Lizzy van Leeuwen says: “Everything he proposes, such as closing mosques and Muslim schools and banning the Koran, is not legal.” Although many have lost the shame of voting for him, it would be neither for him “It’s still good for the Netherlands to be prime minister.”
If a government agreement is reached, Geert Wilders’ PVV still has a problem. Technically, it’s a club with only one member: him. Because of their desire for control, there are no annual party conferences and no democratic debates. There is also no youth department. With its 37 seats, the Congress will be filled with inexperienced PVV MPs, “and some will have to leave the city council or provincial government where they serve; without forgetting the ministers he is trying to appoint, because there are those who refuse to approach this party,” assures Rooduijn. For her part, the anthropologist Lizzy van Leeuwen wonders whether Wilders wants to be both “prime minister, leader of the PVV and speaker in Congress”.
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