In the world’s second shock election result in a week, longtime right-wing nationalist and euroskeptic Geert Wilders unexpectedly scored a huge win in national elections in the Netherlands. Wilders, who has long drawn comparisons to Donald Trump, seemed as surprised as anyone at his massive victory in the Dutch vote yesterday, a result that gave his party an unanticipated 35 seats and the right to form the next Dutch government.
It is also very likely that the fiery outsider will become the next Dutch prime minister. Wilders has long been a polarizing figure in Dutch politics with his outspoken opposition to Islam, and as a result has lived a life essentially on the run from death threats, moving between safe houses under armed-guard protection for years.
Now Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) is planning to implement an agenda that includes a referendum on whether to leave the European Union, and wants to outlaw Islamic schools, mosques, and even the Quran.
The surge in popularity for Wilders and the PVV has been driven in large measure by extreme policies inflicted on the Netherlands’ agricultural sector in recent years, policies stemming from the environmental extremism of the EU and the United Nations. While the Netherlands has long been exceptionally tolerant of foreign immigration and multiculturalism, it also has a centuries-long history of robust defense of its sovereignty, as evidenced by the eighty-year war of secession waged by the tiny Dutch Republic against the Spanish empire during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Now, it seems, even the tolerant and liberal Dutch are fed up with globalism and radical leftism and, like Milei’s Argentina last weekend, have spoken loud and clear: they want their country back.
