Euroskeptic Dutchman Rises to Power on No-Mosque Pledge While Germany Cracks Down on ‘Islamist Scene’
Geert Wilders takes center stage while Marine Le Pen says time is right for Dutch to decide their future ‘as the Brits did’ — and Berlin sounds alarm on Islamist threat.
No sooner had Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ Party of Freedom clinched on Wednesday a stunning win in elections in Holland than the predictable vilification began: headlines from Washington to Warsaw branded Mr. Wilders “populist” or “extreme right” and naturally, “anti-Islam.” True, Mr. Wilders has criticized Islam as a “violent religion” and described the burqa as “a medieval token of a barbaric time” — but recent world events have clouded those concerns.
The hotly anticipated parliamentary election awarded Mr. Wilders’ party, the PVV, as many as 37 seats out of 150 seats. The victory is tantalizing for Europeans who crave a return to respect for national identities over coerced salutes for a supra-European state. In concert with the rise of the Alternative for Germany party, the mainstreaming of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, and the success of Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy, the pivot away from unchecked neo-liberalism is clear.
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