EU leaders should take note but it's too simplistic to say populists are taking over, says Katya Adler.

The unexpectedly meaty win for controversial, hard-right politician Geert Wilders in Wednesday’s general election in the Netherlands set international headlines on fire.

Right-wing nationalists across Europe rushed to congratulate the populist politician, sometimes dubbed the Dutch Trump - partly for his dyed, bouffant-like hairdo, and partly for his famously firebrand rhetoric.

Geert Wilders’ publicly expressed views - including linking Muslim immigration with terrorism and calling for a ban on mosques and the Quran - are so provocative that he has been under tight police protection since 2004.

Wilders was convicted of inciting discrimination, although later acquitted, and he was refused entry to the UK back in 2009.

But Europe’s far right believes their views have now become more mainstream.

  • MonsterMonsterEnglish
    7•7 months ago

    Look at Trump, he’s the same type of right wing nutter. Bullies that ride into power of populism, blaming certain groups of people for everyone’s unhappiness. Deliberately stir up discontent into a fervour and then putting forward a simple yet extreme solution. There’s your answer. It’s happening all over the world including the US.

    It’s reminiscent of the 1930’s Hitler and Mussolini.

    • Hyperreality
      4•7 months ago

      One thing that should be noted, is that Europe’s far right and right wing populist problem pre-dates Trump. Often by decades.

      Vlaams Blok (later Vlaams Belang), the Freedom Party of Austria, Lega Nord, the UK Independence Party, Law and Justice (Poland), Fidesz (Hungary), Front National (now National Rally), Alternative für Deutschland, etc.