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Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders is arguably further to the Right than Marine Le Pen or Viktor Orbán. Wilders has been political leader of the PVV since November 2006. He has been a Member of the House of Representatives since August 25, 1998 (with a short interruption in 2002). Initially he was for the VVD, but on September 2, 2004 he became an independent Member of Parliament. In 2023 he was party leader for the sixth time. Mr Wilders was an employee of the Treaties department at the Health Insurance Fund Council, a legal technical employee of the Social Insurance Council and a policy employee and speechwriter of the VVD House of Representatives faction. In 2010 he served for some time on the municipal council of The Hague.

Born in the southern Dutch city of Venlo in 1963, Wilders grew up alongside his brother and two sisters in a Catholic family. His mother was half Indonesian, a fact Wilders rarely mentions. Aside from being colonised by the Netherlands for hundreds of years, the country is also home to the world’s largest Muslim population. According to his older brother Paul, Wilders took an interest in politics in the 80s. “He was neither clearly on the left or the right at the time, nor was he xenophobic. But he was fascinated by the political game, the struggle for power and influence,” his brother told German news website Der Spiegel in a 2017 interview.

His hatred for Islam came later, around the time he became an MP for the centre-right VVD party in 1998. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks that rocked the US in 2001 and the assassination of far-right Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn a year later, a “large bloc of anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic voters” were left “looking for a champion”, and according to The Economist, Wilders was their man. He left the VVD in 2004, the same year controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered. After the Dutch police discovered Wilders was also on the hit list of van Gogh’s killer, he was placed under police protection.

Two years later, in 2006, Wilders founded his PVV party and placed anti-Islam policies at the heart of its agenda. He notoriously likened Islam to Nazism, comparing the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, and released a highly criticised film in 2008 called “Fitna” that raised a storm of protest across the world. The 15-minute film conflated Islam and terrorism, juxtaposing scenes of beheadings and the 9/11 attacks with quotes from the Koran. He was refused entry to the UK in 2009 while on his way to screen the film at the House of Lords. The Home Office issued the ban because his opinions were considered a “threat to community harmony and therefore public safety”.

In June 2008, the Public Prosecution Service decided to refrain from prosecuting him for discrimination or incitement to hatred against Muslims. Various people and organizations had filed a complaint against him. The Public Prosecution Service considered some statements offensive and rude, but legally permitted in the context of political debate and freedom of expression.

In January 2009, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that prosecution should still be initiated. During the trial in October 2010, the Public Prosecution Service argued for acquittal on charges of discrimination and incitement to hatred against Muslims. On October 22, the recusal chamber decided that the trial should be repeated with new judges, due to a possible attempt to influence an expert witness by one of the defense attorneys. During the trial, which was repeated before other judges, the Public Prosecution Service again demanded an acquittal on all counts in May 2011. Arguing that Dutch freedom of speech safeguarded his right to make incendiary remarks, Wilders was eventually acquitted. The court in Amsterdam acquitted him on all counts on June 23, 2011.

But a few years later in 2016, he was eventually found guilty of insulting people of Moroccan descent when he promised supporters “fewer Moroccans” in the Netherlands. He was convicted on December 9, 2016 by the court in Amsterdam for insulting a group and incitement to hatred or discrimination for statements made in 2014. However, no punishment was imposed. On appeal, the Hague Court of Appeal acquitted him of the latter on September 4, 2020. The Supreme Court confirmed this judgment on July 6, 2021. But the trial didn’t stop Wilders from making hateful remarks. He went on to call Moroccans “scum” years later and launched a contest for caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed several times.

Because of multiple threats against his life, Wilders has been living under strict police protection for almost two decades. He is guarded 24/7 by armed police, lives in a government-provided safe house and must be escorted anytime he shows up in public. To make up for his lack of public appearances, the "Dutch Donald Trump" (who currently has more than 1.2 million followers on X) has taken to social media to spread his populist ideas. His PVV party landed its first victory in 2010, when it scored major gains in parliament and came in third behind Rutte’s VVC and the Labour party.

Between 2010 and 2012, Wilders briefly experienced a right-wing coalition with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) and the VVD. It quickly fell through after he refused to back a package designed to lower the budget deficit. In addition to his Islamophobic and xenophobic stance, Wilders is also staunchly anti-EU and opposes the euro. Years after the UK voted for Brexit, the idea of a “Nexit” (an exit of the Netherlands from the EU) became a core plank of his political platform. This didn’t stop the far-right leader from being elected a member of the European Parliament in 2014.

Wilders forged a Eurosceptic alliance with France’s Marine Le Pen to push their nationalist agenda from within that body. Le Pen was one of the first to congratulate Wilders on his victory in Wednesday’s elections. Although he is close to several European far-right movements, he doesn’t always align with their traditional ideologies. When it comes to social issues, Wilders supports the fight against homophobia and defends the right to abortion.

During the final weeks of his campaign for the 2023 general election, Wilders somewhat softened his anti-Islam and anti-EU stance, so much so that he gained the moniker Geert “Milders”. He vowed he would try to become a prime minister for all Dutch people and focused on issues other than immigration, such as the cost of living crisis, to broaden his electorate.

The PVV manifesto, on the other hand, does not mirror Wilders’ “Milder” façade. His party calls for a ban on “Islamic schools, Korans and mosques” and “Islamic headscarves”, a “reduction in the asylum and immigration flood to the Netherlands” and a “sovereign Netherlands … in charge of its own currency, its own borders and [which] makes its own rules”.

“Can you imagine it? 37 seats!” Wilders exulted to his lawmakers, a day after his far-right PVV Freedom Party won more than double the seats it secured in the last Dutch general election. Then on 25 November 2023, he said "For years they thought they could marginalize the PVV politically. Rutte promised to 'destroy my party down to the last seat'. Kaag told me 'luckily you will fall in the polls'. When I spoke in the House of Representatives, they preferred to look away at their phones in section K.

"But they forgot that I always keep going, never give up and setbacks only make me stronger. That I master the profession of representative and enjoy the debate. That I'm not afraid of anything or anyone. That the PVV stands among the people, takes their problems seriously and names them and speaks plain human language.

"And now we have become by far the largest party in the Netherlands. How I love the Netherlands. So many people have taken the PVV to their hearts. And I their all [En ik hun Allemaal].

"But some politicians still don't get it. The political bag of tricks opens again. It is forgotten that if we are not given the opportunity to translate the voice and democratic mandate of millions of people into administrative responsibility, we will only become bigger and bigger. Because the genie is out of the bottle and won't go back in.

"I remain positive and reasonable. I will continue to moderate myself. And be there for everyone. Because the responsibility I feel is very great. The PVV wants to contribute to solving the major problems facing the Dutch. Too many asylum seekers, too few homes, insufficient purchasing power and poor healthcare. Today, tomorrow or the day after, the PVV will help govern the Netherlands and I will become Prime Minister of this beautiful country."

In the past, Dutch political parties vowed they would not work with the far-right firebrand Wilders, who was seen as an anti-European, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam political pariah heading a party calling for banning mosques, the Quran and headscarves, as well as seeking a national referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union.

By 05 December 2023 The far right PVV, pro-farmer BBB and the right wing Liberals were set to hold talks on forming a new government, though the VVD will not join a cabinet. “We are ready to start negotiating on the contents and that is, I think, what the Netherlands is waiting for,” VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz told reporters after her joint meeting with Geert Wilders and verkenner Ronald Plasterk. The PVV and BBB control 44 of the 150 seats in parliament and need at least two more parties to form a majority coalition.

“Wilders wants to become prime minister very, very badly and already he’s, as we say in Holland, ‘putting water in the wine,’ starting to compromise, starting to say, ‘Yeah, I said that all the Muslims should go but now they shouldn’t go, they should stay,’” said Theo Veltman, who has held various managerial positions in Dutch government departments and agencies.

As leader of by far the largest party in this potential coalition, Wilders would be the logical choice for prime minister and neither the VVD or NSC would be keen on that. Nor would the wider EU establishment — the last thing they want is to normalise hard-Right power in Western Europe. Wilders' election has already deeply divided the Netherlands and his path to power will not be simple.