The victory of Geert Wilders’s far-right PVV party in the Dutch elections has taken pollsters and politicians across Europe by surprise. But Wilders is no newcomer. For years he has attempted to woo voters with his brazenly anti-Islamic policies, hostility to migration and suspicion of Brussels.
In the election campaign, he appeared to win over voters with a slightly softer version of his familiar rhetoric, telling one interviewer he could put his views on Islam “on ice” and declaring in a debate that he wanted to be “a prime minister for all Dutch people”.
