Geert Wilders

Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing populism, anti-immigration, opposition to Islam and Euroscepticism. His views have made him a controversial figure in the Netherlands and abroad. Since 2004, he has been protected at all times by armed police.

After his education, Wilders travelled to Israel and other countries within the Middle East, working for insurance councils. In 1990, Wilders became a staff member of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) He was elected to the municipal council of Utrecht in 1997. The following year he was elected to the House of Representatives. Citing irreconcilable differences over the party's position on the accession of Turkey to the European Union, he left the VVD in 2004 to form his own party, the Party for Freedom. His party provided confidence and supply to the first Rutte cabinet (2010–2012) and was the largest party in the Schoof cabinet (2024–2025).

Wilders has campaigned to stop what he views as the "Islamisation of the Netherlands". He has compared the Quran to Mein Kampf and has campaigned to have the book banned in the Netherlands. He advocates ending immigration from Muslim countries, and banning the construction of new mosques. His controversial 2008 film featuring his views on Islam, Fitna, received international attention and criticism. On 4 September 2020, a Dutch court convicted Wilders for group insults, following comments he made about Moroccans in the Netherlands.

Early life and career

Wilders was born on 6 September 1963 in the city of Venlo, in the province of Limburg. He is the son of Johannes Henricus Andreas Wilders and Anne Maria (Ording) Wilders. He is the youngest of four children and was raised Catholic. His father was Dutch; his mother Maria Anne Ourding was born at Sukabumi, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) with a mixed Dutch and Indonesian background. His father worked as a manager for the printing and copying manufacturing company Océ. Wilders received his secondary education at the Mavo and Havo in Venlo.

Wilders' goal after he graduated from secondary school was to see the world. Because he did not have enough money to travel to Australia, his preferred destination, he went to Israel instead and volunteered for a year in a moshav, Tomer, on the West Bank. With the money he saved, he travelled to the neighbouring Arab countries, and was moved by the lack of democracy in the region. When he returned to the Netherlands, he retained Israeli ideas about counter-terrorism and a "special feeling of solidarity" for the country.

From September 1983, he fulfilled his military service. After training in Bergen op Zoom, he was stationed at the Oranjekazerne in Schaarsbergen until December 1984. In 1985 he moved to the Kanaleneiland district of Utrecht.

In 1984, he began working at the Health Care Insurance Board (Dutch: Ziekenfondsraad), for which he completed a training program at the in Amsterdam. Two years later, he became a legal adviser at the Social Security Supervisory Board. During this period, he obtained several partial certificates in law from the Open University of the Netherlands.

Political career

Wilders became a member of the right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in 1989. A year later, he was hired as a staff member for the VVD's House of Representatives parliamentary group. As an assistant to Robin Linschoten, he focused primarily on the social security system from 1990 to 1994. In 1995, he was asked to co-author a report on Hungary with Perry Pierik and László Marácz, in which they strongly criticized the treatment of Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries. The report was leaked to de Volkskrant, which interpreted it as reflecting Greater Hungarian ideology and linked it to Wilders' Hungarian partner.

The Hungary report marked the beginning of his role in foreign policy, particularly regarding Eastern Europe and the Middle East. This new portfolio brought him closer to party leader Frits Bolkestein. Bolkestein was one of the first Dutch politician to address the consequences of mass immigration for Dutch society, including a sharp criticism of Muslim immigrants. He set an example for Wilders not only in his ideas but also in his confrontational speaking style.

In 1997, Wilders was elected for the VVD to the municipal council of Utrecht, the fourth largest city of the Netherlands.

VVD MP (2001-2004)

In the run-up to the 1998 general election, Wilders moved back to his hometown of Venlo. He expected to have a better chance of securing a high position on the party list through the more right-leaning VVD branch in Limburg. His candidacy was supported by Jos van Rey, and Mark Verheijen served as his campaign manager. He was assigned the 45th place on the list, which was sufficient to enter parliament following the 1998 cabinet formation. As a member of parliament, Wilders was again responsible for the social security portfolio, as well as Iraq, Iran, and Central Europe. On 28 October 1998, he delivered his maiden speech on restricting social benefits abroad. In 1999, he gained public attention for his proposal to limit benefit rights for individuals receiving Disability Insurance Act benefits due to psychological complaints.

Wilders also began focusing on Islamic fundamentalism, submitting dozens of parliamentary questions. In September 1999, he described Muslim extremism as "one of the greatest threats." He argued that terrorist groups were being financially supported from Saudi Arabia and called for international cooperation to combat this issue. This stance put him at odds with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jozias van Aartsen (VVD). Wilders requested an analysis of Muslim extremism, which was published in December 2001. Despite his involvement, he criticized the report as disappointing.

Wilders' knowledge of Muslim extremism brought him to prominence after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Compared to later statements, his views at that time were relatively moderate. He criticized Pim Fortuyn, who was at that time lead candidate for Livable Netherlands and called for a 'cold war on Islam'. Wilders stated two weeks after the attack in an episode of Barend en Van Dorp: "There is nothing wrong with Islam, it is a respectable religion. Most Muslims in the world, and in the Netherlands, are good citizens that have done nothing wrong. The problem lies with a handful of Muslim extremists." In 2010, Wilders said about this that he was "still burdened by the yoke of Van Aartsen and Dijkstal" at the time. Dijkstal, however, denied that Wilders had been restricted in his freedom of expression by the VVD.

In September 2004, Wilders left the VVD, to form his own political party, Groep Wilders, later renamed the Party for Freedom. The crunch issue with the VVD party line was about his refusal to endorse the party's position that European Union accession negotiations must be started with Turkey.

Party for Freedom

The Party for Freedom's political platform often overlaps those of the assassinated Rotterdam politician Pim Fortuyn and his Pim Fortuyn List. After his death, Fortuyn's impact remained, as more and more politicians sought to gain political mileage by directly confronting topics such as a ban on immigration that were, from a politically correct point of view, considered unmentionable in the Netherlands until Fortuyn came on the scene and upended the Dutch tradition of consensus politics with an anti-immigration stance. Wilders would position himself to inherit Fortuyn's constituency. The Party for Freedom called for a €16 billion tax reduction, a far stricter policy toward recreational drug use, investing more in roads and other infrastructure, building nuclear power plants and including animal rights in the Dutch constitution. In the 2006 Dutch parliamentary election, their first parliamentary election, the PVV won 9 out of the 150 seats.

Polling conducted throughout March 2009 by Maurice de Hond indicated the Party for Freedom was the most popular parliamentary party. The polls predicted that the party would take 21% of the national vote, winning 32 out of 150 seats in the Dutch parliament. If the polling results were replicated in an election, Wilders would be a major power broker. Under such circumstances, there would also be some likelihood of him becoming Prime Minister of the Netherlands. This has been partially attributed to timely prosecution attempts against him for hate speech and the travel ban imposed on him by the United Kingdom, as well as dissatisfaction with the fourt Balkenende cabinet's response to the 2008 financial crisis.

The PVV only contested the March 2010 municipal elections in The Hague and Almere, because of a shortage of good candidates. The big gains that were scored indicated that the party and Wilders might dominate the political scene in the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled on 9 June 2010. The PVV won in Almere and came second to the Dutch Labour party in The Hague. In Almere, the PVV won 22 percent of the vote to Labour's 18 percent. In The Hague, the PVV had 8 seats – second to Labour with 10 seats.