2023-11-26 05:12:54
These days Geert Wilders has become the great hope of all the European Eurosceptic and Europhobic parties that have enthusiastically received his victory in last Wednesday’s elections in the Netherlands.
Born on September 6, 1963 in Venlo, in the province of Limburg, near Germany, he is the youngest of four brothers in a Catholic family. He defines himself as an agnostic, although a defender of European Christian roots. His father was Dutch while his mother grew up in Indonesia, although it is often criticized that he does not talk much about this last aspect of his biography. His father was in hiding from the Nazis during World War II and for the rest of his life refused to visit Germany.
After finishing secondary education, young Wilders wanted to see the world and decided to travel to Israel where he worked as a volunteer in a moshav, a type of rural Israeli community similar to the Kibbutz and made up of individual agricultural farms. Later, he took advantage of his stay to travel through the Arab countries, where he says he was shocked by the lack of democracy. His great admiration for the State of Israel also comes from that time.
After returning to the Netherlands, he began working in the health insurance sector and soon began to show an interest in politics. His first job in this field was as a speechwriter for the Liberal Conservative Party and then he was appointed as a councilor in Utrecht. It seems that the turning point in his political thinking occurs when he begins to work as a parliamentary advisor to the deputy Frits Bolkestein from 1990 to 1998, the first Dutch politician with a speech in favor of limiting immigration, especially that of Muslim origin. Wilders not only shares these ideas, but also learns from his mentor how to defend them. According to his older brother, with whom he does not speak, during the 80s, the young Wilders “was not clearly left or right at that time, nor was he xenophobic. But he was fascinated by the political game, the struggle for power and influence.
After this stage, Wilders won a seat in 1998 with the acronym of the Liberals and even became spokesperson for this party, but decided to leave this formation due to disagreements over Turkey’s membership in the European Union and founded his own political force. , the Freedom Party (PVV), in 2004. It was then that his figure began to be known in Dutch politics and he began to openly defend his rejection of the Islamization of Europe. They say that he was shocked by the murders of far-right leader Pim Fortuyn in 2002, by whose thought Wilders would have been greatly influenced, and by that of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, known for his parodies against Islam. In 2006, his party obtained parliamentary representation with 9 seats and became the fifth largest force in the country, later it reached third position and even second. But no one predicted that in these elections it would double its seats and become the most voted political party in the country with 37 representatives while the Social Democrats and Greens, the second force, have had to settle for 25.
In 2010, he supported the Liberals, his former party, in the first term of the Mark Rutte era, although he was not part of the government coalition. It was precisely his vote against the 2012 budget that led to the fall of the Government and the calling of early elections. Since then, the liberals led by Rutte refused to negotiate with him and a cordon sanitaire was established. Following his victory last Wednesday, his former party is not willing to form a coalition, although it will vote in his favor as a tolerant partner in a conservative government. A position that can delay talks to form the Executive for months and has infuriated Wilders.
His speech with xenophobic and Eurosceptic proclamations is joined by a personality with certain eccentric overtones. Her dark brown hair turned blonde when she entered politics and the Dutch media began to compare her to Marilyn Monroe until her hair turned gray. This striking and unconventional image makes him similar to other populist politicians such as Donald Trump or Boris Johnson, which enhances his role as an “outsider”, although he has always rejected these types of comparisons. Furthermore, he has always denied the extreme right label and defines himself as a right-wing liberal who opposes fascism. Despite this, in recent years he has strengthened his ties with other parties also considered extreme right such as Le Pen’s National Rally, the Italian League, the Belgian Vlaams Belang or the Austrian Freedom Party. His victory was also greeted with euphoria by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who has been charged by the European Commission for the authoritarian drift in which the country is mired.
Although in these elections Wilders has tempered many of his ideas in what seems like an attempt to seduce a large number of voters and be able to join other political forces, his statements have always been controversial. He has come to defend the ban on the Netherlands hosting mosques or reading the Koran and has compared the holy book of Muslims with the work written by Hitler, “Mein Kampf.” Furthermore, he is in favor of women not being able to cover their faces with Islamic scarves in public buildings. He was also convicted by the courts, although without a fine, for insulting Muslims. Although he claims to be willing to “put many of these ideas in the freezer” in relation to Islam, after his electoral victory he continues to defend limiting immigration and a referendum on remaining in the EU. Despite these ideas associated with the extreme right, he is a defender of the rights of the LGTBIQ collective.
In 2004, two suspects were arrested for having tried to murder him, which has meant that since then he has had to provide security and his movements have been very restricted. Something difficult to digest in a country where until recently the prime minister used to travel by bicycle, despite the rise of the Mocro. The mafia of Moroccan origin has caused numerous public figures to begin providing security and even the heir to the throne, Princess Amalia of Holland, has suffered kidnapping threats. Nothing strange for Wilders, who has been enduring this situation for decades and assures that he does not want her, not even her worst enemy.
Not much is known about his personal life, but he has been married since 1992 to his wife, Krisztina, a former Hungarian diplomat of Jewish origins. Now the big question is whether Wilders will be prime minister after 13 years of the Rutte era. If the Dutch tradition is fulfilled that the leader of the Executive is the one of the party with the most votes, he would have to agree with the liberals and the centrist party of Pieter Omtzigt called New Social Contract, which would add 81 votes or even 88 if the Peasant movement joins. -Ciudadano, a force that has won seven seats and that shares with Wilders its rejection of the policies against climate change dictated by Brussels. After the refusal of the Liberals to form a Government, this possibility becomes complicated, but what is clear is that Wilders’ speech will continue to mark Dutch politics.
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