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Geert Wilders, with his peroxide blond hair and fiery rhetoric, has long been one of the Netherlands’ best-known lawmakers at home and abroad. Nicknamed the Dutch Donald Trump, he is famous for his strident campaigning against immigration, the European Union and especially Islam.
Now he’s in pole position to become the country’s next prime minister, after winning a shock victory in Wednesday’s general election. All he needs to do is persuade potential coalition partners in other parties to work with him. How hard could that be?
Wilders started his political career as a member of parliament in 1998, first for the center-right VVD, where he mentored a young Mark Rutte, before quitting the party and setting up his own Party for Freedom in 2006. That makes him the longest-serving lawmaker in the Dutch parliament.
He married Krisztina Márfai, a former Hungarian diplomat, in 1992. The couple do not have children, but do own two cats, Snoetje and Pluisje, who have their own account on X with nearly 23,000 followers.
Why is he so controversial?
As a political leader Wilders is known for his inflammatory language, having described Islam as a “totalitarian ideology” and called Moroccans “scum.”
Wilders has said that his aversion to Islam was fueled by the assassination of the anti-Islam filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004, as well as the time he spent in a kibbutz in Israel. His election program called for a ban on the Quran, mosques and all Islamic schools, as well as on Islamic headscarves in government buildings.
Several years ago a court convicted him of insulting a group of people based on their background after he called for “fewer Moroccans” in a 2014 speech.
He’s also not averse to attacking other politicians in brutal terms, calling outgoing Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag a “witch” and fat-shaming his opponent, Frans Timmermans, during a debate.
Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric has made him a target for extremists and led to his living under 24/7 protection, moving from one safe house to another for the past two decades.
During an election-night party in a cafe on the Dutch coast, Wilders was flanked by security guards and was whisked in and out of the venue, which had previously been screened by dogs and special police units.
What are his policies?
Wilders’ main campaign pledge was to stop the “asylum tsunami,” which he blamed for various social problems including the country’s housing shortage and high health costs.
Accordingly, he has called for an end to asylum for refugees and to the free movement of labor within the EU, proposing that work visas be introduced for some. He also wants temporary asylum permits for Syrians to be revoked, and for criminals to be stripped of their Dutch nationality and deported.
Unlike other far-right figures, Wilders is not a climate-denier, although he believes that the government has spent too much on reducing CO2 emissions. He has advocated that coal and gas power stations remain open, and proposes to halt the construction of solar parks and wind turbines. He also wants to withdraw the Netherlands from the U.N.’s Paris climate agreement.
Instead, he preaches climate adaptation — strengthening dykes and investing in projects that would allow rivers to overflow occasionally.
A hardline Euroskeptic, Wilders has called for a “Nexit” referendum on leaving the EU, and wants opt-outs from EU regulations on asylum and migration.
What does the rest of the world think?
The Dutch election is the latest in a series of votes that are altering Europe’s political landscape, with far-right parties also on the rise in Italy, Germany and France.
Wilders was congratulated by his political friends Marine Le Pen in France and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who said “the wings of change are here.”
In Kyiv the results will be met with worry. Like other far-right leaders on the Continent, Wilders has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, and railed against what he described in 2017 as “hysterical Russophobia” in Europe.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Wilders has distanced himself somewhat from the Kremlin, calling the attack a mistake.
Nevertheless, in one of the final debates prior to the election, Wilders said he would not support sending Ukraine more money and weapons; those resources, he said, are needed for the Netherlands’ own army. The country’s caretaker government, conversely, is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has just allocated over €2 billion in aid for Kyiv next year.
Wilders is a firm backer of Israel and advocates shifting the Netherlands’ embassy there to Jerusalem while closing the Dutch diplomatic post in Ramallah, home of the Palestinian Authority.
Following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, he said that “Israel is fighting for its existence” against “the forces of hate, barbarism and terrorism.”
Will he be PM?
Wilders secured 25 percent of the vote, which is a lot in a highly-fractured electoral system, but not enough for a majority in the parliament. That means he’ll have to form a coalition government with two or three other parties before he can take power.
That’s easier said than done, as mainstream parties in the Netherlands are reluctant to join forces with the far right and have kept Wilders out of government for more than a decade. The scale of his victory, however, will strengthen his hand in negotiations.
In a victory speech on Wednesday, Wilders called on other parties to engage constructively in coalition talks, and even suggested he would be willing to compromise on his anti-Muslim stance in order to form a government. “I understand very well that parties do not want to be in a government with a party that wants unconstitutional measures,” he said. “We are not going to talk about mosques, Qurans and Islamic schools.”
Although Pieter Omtzigt, who built a centrist party from scratch in three months to take an estimated 20 seats in the election, had previously ruled out joining forces with Wilders, he said on Wednesday night that he would be open to talks, and declined to rule out any potential partners.
Dilan Yeşilgöz, who replaced PM Mark Rutte as the VVD party’s leader, has also said she was open to the idea of joining forces with Wilders’ PVV — but this week ruled out supporting him as prime minister.
