As Netherlands goes to the polls again, Geert Wilders faces isolation

Geert Wilders at a debate on Monday evening. He has told other parties that ‘democracy is dead’ if they refuse to rule with him. Photograph: Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP/Getty Images

Voters in the Netherlands return to the polls on Wednesday less than two years after Geert Wilders led his party to a shock election win that the anti-immigration agitator could well repeat – but this time, with little chance of his party ending up in government.

Polls suggest that Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV) could again finish first in a vote triggered when he pulled it out of a fractious and ineffectual four-party rightwing coalition last June in a row over his 10-point plan for a radical crackdown on refugees.