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Often referred to as the Dutch Trump, Geert Wilders‘ anti-Islam, anti-immigrant and anti-EU message seems to have finally swept him to first place at the polls.
From calling Moroccans “scum” to holding competitions for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Wilders has built a career from his self-appointed mission to stop an “Islamic invasion” of the West.
He has remained defiant despite brushes with the law — he was convicted for insulting Moroccans — and death threats that have meant he has been under police protection since 2004.
Nevertheless, at the sixth time of asking, Wilders appears to have finally triumphed in the polls by toning down some of his populist rhetoric and focusing on voters’ other concerns.
There are “bigger problems than fighting against the flood of asylum-seekers and immigrants”, he said in one of the final election debates, adding he was prepared to put his views on Islam “in the freezer” to govern.
He said the Dutch people care more about cost-of-living issues, healthcare and security.
Yet the manifesto of his PVV (Freedom Party) retained the sharp anti-immigrant tone that has become his hallmark.
Born in 1963 in southern Venlo, close to the German border, Wilders grew up in a Catholic family with his brother and two sisters.
His mother was half-Indonesian, a fact Wilders rarely mentions.
Wilders entered politics in 1998 in the Liberal VVD party, before beginning a one-man faction in parliament and then forming the far-right PVV in 2006.
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