The rise of an extremist who’s much more radical than Trump

Long before the Americans got theirs, the Dutch had their own “crazy blond” politician, said Dirk Schümer in Die Welt (Berlin). Geert Wilders, whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) has for months been topping Dutch polls, has policies far more radical than Donald Trump’s. He proposes to close the Netherlands’ mosques and ban Muslim immigration – though he’s yet to explain how this will work in a nation with almost a million Muslims, 6% of the population. There’s no such thing as “moderate Islam”, he insists: it’s a totalitarian ideology “like fascism” and he’ll fight it “to the death”. But of late, he’s widened his appeal: pledges to help boost social welfare and help small businesses attracted support from pensioners, the selfemployed, civil servants and young people. Now, days before the election, on 15 March, the PVV is neck and neck with Mark Rutte’s ruling liberals – though even if the PVV wins, the other main parties have vowed to unite to stop Wilders becoming PM.

As Wilders sees it, the Netherlands is in a state of siege, said Bas Heijne in NRC Handelsblad (Amsterdam), a claim buttressed by the fact he himself has been under 24-hour protection by Dutch security since 2004. He blames foreigners for trying to “take away everything we have”, even our Christmas and Easter celebrations. Pure nonsense, of course, said Ad van Nieuwpoort in Trouw (Amsterdam), but it’s worrying to see how Wilders’ message is now penetrating the mainstream. Even priests have been offering excuses for his “angry white men” supporters, explaining that biblical prophets, too, often showed righteous anger. Clerics, of all people, should see it’s grotesque for a politician to refer to mosques as “Nazi temples”, or to compare the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The Church should denounce every vote for the PVV as a vote for “destruction”. Wilders also has strong support within Trump’s administration, said Freke Vuijst in Foreign Policy (Washington DC). Long before Nigel Farage made overtures, Wilders was laying the groundwork for ties between the European far-right and the extremist fringe of the Republican Party. He’s spoken at conferences attended by Jeff Sessions (now attorney general) and Stephen Miller (now White House senior policy adviser). And after being convicted of hate speech by a Dutch court following the release of his anti-islam film Fitna, Wilders came to be seen in US anti-islam circles as a kind of “martyr” for free speech. He’s also had financial support from US backers. If the Dutch let him down, he can always count on friends in Washington.