Dutch nationalist scores his biggest victory yet

When Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders was charged with using hate speech (including comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf), some feared that the publicity surrounding the trial would help rather than hurt his party and reputation. My FP colleague Josh Keating has already twice documented how Wilders and his party have gained more mainstream support, ...

585223_090605_wilders5.jpg
585223_090605_wilders5.jpg

When Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders was charged with using hate speech (including comparing the Koran to Mein Kampf), some feared that the publicity surrounding the trial would help rather than hurt his party and reputation. My FP colleague Josh Keating has already twice documented how Wilders and his party have gained more mainstream support, even in the United States. Now, Dutch voters have affirmed those fears:

The Dutch anti-immigrant maverick, Geert Wilders, scored his biggest victory yesterday, seizing 15% and second place in European elections for the Netherlands, according to exit polls last night.The bleached blond populist, barred from Britain and facing prosecution at home for hate speech, led his Freedom party to win four of the Netherlands’ 25 seats in the European parliament at the first attempt, pushing the Labour party of the coalition government’s finance minister, Wouter Bos, into third place.

It should be an interesting meeting when his party’s representatives try to suggest EU policy:

Wilders wants the European parliament abolished, Bulgaria and Romania kicked out of the EU, the mass deportation of immigrants from the Netherlands, and a minimum say for Brussels over Dutch policy.

Given that this will be the first time Wilders’s party has won European seats, it will be interesting to see if some new version of the ITS party (a nationalist EU parliament party that briefly existed during 2007) could be could be reconstituted after the results are announced on Sunday.

MARCEL ANTONISSE/AFP/Getty Images

James Downie is an editorial researcher at FP.

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