2023-11-23 21:00:34
He was brooding over his victory. For years, Geert Wilders grabbed points in the polls whenever he could, by highlighting his favorite subjects: the fight against immigration and Islam. The leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), the main far-right group in the Netherlands, can now enjoy his glass of champagne with a smile. On Wednesday November 22, he came first in the Dutch legislative elections. According to the results, which are now almost complete this Thursday, the PVV, created in 2006, won the best score in its history by winning 37 of the 150 seats in the lower house of Parliament. More than double than in the previous election in 2021, but still far from the majority.
After this victory, the scale of which surprised people across borders, an arduous task now awaits Geert Wilders: convincing his rivals to form a coalition. Before the election, the leaders of the country’s three main political forces assured that their parties would not participate in a government led by the PVV. Discussions could last several months.
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A seasoned politician
With peroxide hair combed back and big frowning eyebrows, Geert Wilders is, physically, the Dutch version of Donald Trump. The Dutchman entered politics in the 1990s, a long time before the former American president. He began his career with a stint in the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, center right), the formation of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which he left in 2004 before founding the PVV two years later.
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He is an experienced MP, who has been in Parliament since 1998 and who recently received a “silver carriage”, rewarding his twenty-five years in office, reports the Dutch daily “De Standaard”.
At 60, Geert Wilders took part in his sixth legislative elections at the head of the PVV on Wednesday. His biggest electoral victory until today was in 2010, when he won 24 seats. In 2017, the far-right party became the second political force in Parliament, before falling to third place in 2021.
“There are parliamentary committees where the members of the PVV are the best interlocutors if we want to know how it works, who is who, what files we need to know”écrit « De Standaard ».
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Looks like Marine Le Pen
More than Donald Trump, Geet Wilders is ultimately much more comparable to the French far right of Marine Le Pen, who was quick to congratulate him on his victory ” spectacular “.
“Congratulations to @geertwilderspvv and the PVV for their spectacular performance in the legislative elections which confirms the growing attachment to the defense of national identities. It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch extinguished that the hope for change remains alive in Europe.wrote the leader of the National Rally (RN) deputies on X (formerly Twitter).
Congratulation to @geertwilderspvv and to the PVV for their spectacular performance in the legislative elections which confirms the growing attachment to the defense of national identities. It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch extinguished that the hope of…
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) November 22, 2023
Twitter – Marine Le Pen on Twitter / X
A few months before the European election in June 2024, this new progress of a eurosceptic and anti-immigration party in the seventh most populous country in the European Union (EU) was welcomed by most of the far-right leaders of the Old continent. “The wind of change is here”rejoiced Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
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“Europeans are increasingly demanding that we defend their nations, their borders, their rights”, said Santiago Abascal, the leader of the Spanish far-right Vox party. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, boss of the League and Minister of Infrastructure, applauded “a crushing victory” of a “historical ally” of his training.
On crusade against the “Islamic invasion”
In addition to his hair exuberance, the nationalist has the profile of the traditional conservative radicalizing over time towards the extreme right. Born in 1963 in Venlo, a town near the German border, he grew up in a Catholic family with his brother and two sisters.
From the 1980s, he began to develop a passion for politics. “He was neither clearly left nor right at the time, nor xenophobic. But he was fascinated by the political game, the struggle for power and influence,” confided his older brother, Paul, from German magazine «Der Spiegel» in 2017.
Gradually, he will develop a blatant Islamophobia. In 2016, he was convicted of “discrimination” after insulting Moroccans. Two years earlier, at a public meeting in The Hague, he had told the crowd: “Do you want more or fewer Moroccans? » To the answer ” Less ! “, he then retorted: “We’ll take care of it.” »
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A year after being caught by the courts, he persists and signs by launching his campaign for the 2017 elections against “Moroccan scum”. The Dutch MP also does not hesitate to propose caricature competitions of the Prophet Mohammed to crusade against what he calls a “Islamic invasion” of the West.
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An obsession that is reflected in his electoral program. Geert Wilders notably wants to ban Muslim schools, the Koran and mosques. “With a reduction in the influx [des demandeurs] asylum and immigration to the Netherlands, the Islamization of our country will also be reduced”indicates the PVV manifesto. “We want less Islam in the Netherlands and we will achieve this through less non-Western immigration and a general shutdown of asylum”it is also written.
The far-right leader, who entered the campaign with the slogan “the Dutch first”, wants a « gel de l’asile » et “a generally more restrictive immigration policy”, as well as an exemption from European rules on asylum and migration.
The PVV wants to reestablish Dutch border controls, turning back asylum seekers who try to enter the Netherlands from “safe neighboring countries”. Illegal immigrants will be arrested and deported, Syrians with temporary asylum permits will have their permits revoked because “parts of Syria are now safe”. Refugees holding a residence permit will lose it “if they go on vacation to their country of origin”.
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Favorable to a “Nexit”
The focus of debates on the theme of immigration during the campaign benefited the PVV. Over the past ten years, “the other right-wing parties have come closer” by Geert Wilders, says “De Standaard”. These early elections were also provoked by Mark Rutte, in power since 2010, when his cabinet collapsed on asylum policy in July. The coalition between the VVD and its allies ended, and the liberal leader eventually announced his withdrawal from the political scene.
Meanwhile, Geert Wilders has put aside his more radical ideas, preferring in particular to focus on issues such as the cost of living, to build an image closer to that of a prime minister. So much so that some analysts have nicknamed it « Geert Milders » (“Geert the Gentle”, in French). In his victory speech Wednesday evening, he indicated that“he will have to find solutions within the framework of the law and the Constitution”, reports the Flemish channel VRT News.
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Because, in addition to a vehement hatred of Islam, Geert Wilders wishes to push through a climate-sceptical and anti-European political program. The PVV manifesto calls in particular for more oil and gas extraction from the North Sea and for coal and gas power plants to remain open: “We have been made to fear climate change for decades […] We must stop being afraid. »
At the level of the Old Continent, Geert Wilders is attacking the “diktats” of the European Union and promised during his campaign a referendum on “Nexit”, an exit from the European Union, to find ” of the sovereign Netherlands. Finally, still on the international level, the leader of the PVV presents himself as close to Vladimir Putin and wants the Netherlands to stop their arms deliveries to Ukraine.
A program that worries. In a report published at the beginning of November the Dutch Bar Association (NOvA) drew up a long list of PVV projects which do not comply with the rule of law, we can read on the website of the Belgian media “Nieuwsblad”. For its part, the NGO Transparency International alerted [PDF] on the far-right party’s little effort to fight corruption and money laundering.
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