Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders' unexpected🎃 win in Wednesday's elections💦 has surprised not only the entire world but also himself.
The 60-year-old politician, on trac𝔉k to be the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands, took to X on Thursday, sharing a video of himself in joyous disbelief at having secured 35 seats in the parliament.
The leader of the Freedom Par⭕ty, often referred to as the Dutch Trump for both his striking resemblance and similar ideologies, has just orchestrated one of the biggest upsets in European politics with his landslide victory🔥.
Who is Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a right-wing populi🌠st leader, widely recogni🦄sed for his controversial anti-immigration and anti-islamic ideologies.
Although he has been a fixture in politics for over two decades🐈, this is the first time he will not be a part of the opposition.
Born in the southeastern Netherlands, Wilders attended secondary school in Venlo ꦐand took a series of law classes through Open ✱University. From 1981 to 1983 he lived in Israel and traveled extensively throughout the Middle East.
Wilders made his debut in politics as a m꧒ember of the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy in 1997. The following year he was elected to parliament.
Wilders was on the sidelines for much of his early career and only began to grow in popularity when he started voicing his ant🌸i-islamic views.
In 2004 he fo༺unded his own p🐟arty - Freedom party (PVV).
Anti-islamic ideology
Geert Wilders’ has not kept his aversion to Islam a secret. He has often linked Musl🐓im immigration with terrorism and called for a ban on the Quran and mosques. In 2007 he compared the Quran to Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf.
He 𒅌says his condemnation for the religion ros🌊e when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was killed in 2004 for his film, Submission, that depicted Islam as a religion that encouraged violence against women.
He has often criticised Islam as “a retarded culture” and a “backw✃ard religion” and referred to Muslims as “second-class citizens”.
He has received sꩵeveral death threats for his Islamophobic views and has hence remained under police security since 2004.
Wil🅠ders has also proposed a ban on headscarves from government ཧbuildings should he come to power.
Last year, Wilders backed BJP member Nupur Sharma on her off🐻ensive remarks on Prophet Mohammad.
In his tweet, Wilders wrote, “Nupur Sharma is a he💯ro who spoke nothing but the truth. The whole world should be proud of her. She deserves the Nobel Prize. And India is a Hindu nation, the Indian government is obliged to strongly defend Hindus against Islamic hate and violence.”
Anti-immigration
In his winning speech, Wilders said, “the hope is that peop♒le get their country back, that we make sure that Netherlands is for the Dutch again. That we limi🐼t the asylum tsunami and migration.”
The populist leader has openly expressed his views for shutting the borde🍸rs for immigrants, especially those from “Islam🌳ic countries.”
The Dutch politician was convicted of inciting discrimination through a speech he delꦰivered follow☂ing local elections in March 2014.
After his party narrowly missed becoming the largest gro༺up on The Hague's city council, Wilders asked a roomful of suppo👍rters about their preference for "more or fewer Moroccans" in the country. In response to the crowd's shouts for "Fewer!" he remarked, "Well, we'll take care of that."
Anti-EU stance
Wilౠders’ Anti-EU rhetoric is another element at the centre of his agenda.
Wilders says he will be calling for a referendum on whether Netherlands should leave the European Union. He advocates for t𓄧he Netherlands’ exit✱ from the European Union, a move he terms “Nexit”.
A Wilders victory holds imp🍌lications for Europe, given the Netherlands' st🌌atus as one of the founding members of the European Union and raises questions over its commitments to the bloc.
The populist party now moves to form a coalition with a👍t least 🌼two other parties to secure a majority and appoint a prime minister.