Geert Wilders

At 60 years old, Geert Wilders has this physical status:

Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician.

Since he founded the party for Independence (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV), he has been the party's leader since 2006.

Wilders is the party's parliamentary leader (Tweede Kamer).

He was active in the formation of the Rutte cabinet, a minority cabinet of VVD and CDA), but after a "tolerance deal" (gedoogakkoord) between the PVV and these groups, he withdrew his support in April 2012, citing differences with the cabinet over proposed budget cuts.

Wilders is best known for his condemnation of Islam; his views have made him a controversial figure in the Netherlands and abroad, and his safe havened have been shielded at all times by armed bodyguards since 2004.

As a young adult, his travels to Israel and the greater Middle East helped shape his political convictions.

Personal life

Two alleged criminals were arrested in The Hague on November 10th after an hour-long siege of a house. They were found with three grenades and were accused of planning to murder Wilders as well as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fellow MP. The criminals were said to be employees of the Hofstad Network, which the Dutch intelligence service, the General Intelligence and Security Service, has described as a member of the Hofstad Network (Hofstadgroep). Because of regular threats to his health, Wilders has been under constant security guards. A Dutch woman was sentenced to one-year in jail for posting more than 100 threatening emails to Wilders in September 2007. For attacking Wilders in a rap song in 2009, a rapper from Rotterdam was sentenced to 80 hours community service and a two-month suspended prison term. In 2008, Wilders was rated as the most endangered politician in the Netherlands.

According to reports, Wilders was "deprived...of a personal life as a result of his... hatred of Islam." He is regularly accompanied by six plainclothes police officers, and does not welcome visitors until they are informed in advance, thoroughly searched, and led at all times. He lives in a state-provided safe house that is supposed to be bulletproof and has a panic room. He is driven from his house to his parliament offices in an armoured police car and wearings a bulletproof jacket. His office is located in the most isolated section of the Dutch Parliament building, and was selected because potential terrorists can access it through just one corridor, making it safer for his bodyguards to flee an attack. Krisztina Wilders (née Márfai), a former diplomat from Hungary of Jewish origins, is married to Krisztina Wilders (née Márfai). He said the restrictions on his life were "a problem that I would not want to live with."

Karen Geurtsen, a Dutch journalist from HP-De Tijd, reported a serious hack of security in January 2010. She spent four months undercover for the PVV party, posing as an intern. She claimed that she had unchecked access to Wilders. The first words of the article that she published about this procedure were "I could have killed him." She had "dozens" of chances to kill her brother, according to her. The Special Security Assignments Brigade, a special unit of Dutch military police, made four attempts to smuggle a rifle into the tightly protected offices of Wilders' Freedom Party in July 2010, both of which were fruitful. Following these incidents, surveillance at the offices was enhanced.

Wilder's personal finances revealed in June 2011 that he had formed a self-administered firm a year earlier but didn't reveal it publicly, as a parliamentarian.

Wilders has been dying his hair since at least the mid 1990s, having previously cut his hair at a barber shop near Utrecht Central Station until security issues were raised. Wilders' dark roots no longer appear due to aging, as a result of increased graying. Because of his flamboyant platinum blond hairstyle, wilders have earned nicknames such as "Mozart" and "Captain Peroxide." He is described by Radio Netherlands as the "most popular bleachblond since Marilyn Monroe."

Wilders is an agnostic, but he has claimed that Christians "are my allies" and that they should essentially want the same thing.

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Early life and career

Wilders was born in Venlo, south of Limburg, on September 6, 1963. He is the youngest of four children and was raised Catholic. He was born in colonial Indonesia and a mother whose roots were mixed Dutch and Indonesian. His father, who worked as a manager for the printing and copying plant Océ, hid from the Germans during the Second World War, an event so sad that he refused to enter Germany even 40 years later.

Wilders obtained his secondary education at the Mavo and Havo middle school and high school in Venlo. Wilders took a course in health-care at the Stichting Opleiding Sociale Verzekeringen in Amsterdam and obtained multiple law degrees at the Dutch Open University, reflecting passions that came later in his career.

Since graduating from secondary school, the Wilders' dream was to see the world. Since he didn't have enough funds to travel to Australia, his preferred destination, he went to Israel rather than trying to find a year in a moshav on the West Bank. He traveled to the Arab countries with the money he saved and was struck by the region's lack of democracy. He returned to the Netherlands with Israeli anti-terrorism theories and a "strong feeling of sympathy" for the country.

Wilders, who now live in Utrecht, began working in the health-care industry. His passion for the subject led him to his work as a speech-writer for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the Netherlands. He began his political career as a political advisor to party leader Frits Bolkestein, who specialized in international affairs. He worked in this field from 1990 to 1998. Geert Wilders travelled extensively during this period, visiting countries all around the Middle East, including Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel. Bolkestein was the first Dutch politician to consider the ramifications of mass immigration for Dutch society, with a strong critique of Muslim migrants. He led by example for Wilders not only in his theories but also in his confrontational speaking style. Wilders were later described as a "sorcerer's apprentice" to Bolkestein, according to political analyst Anno Bunnik.

Political career

Wilders was elected to the municipal council of Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, in 1997. He lived in Kanaleneiland, a suburb with cheap social housing and high apartment blocks that has a large population of immigrants. Although Wilders, a city councilor, was mugged in his own neighborhood, several have speculated that this may have fueled his political change. He was not rewarded for his service on the city council of Utrecht, but in the upcoming elections, he would vote at a much lower rate than the national average.

He was elected to the Netherlands' national parliament a year later, but his first four years in parliament were not particularly keen. However, his appointment in 2002 as a public spokesman for the VVD led Wilders to become more well-known for his outspoken attack on Islam. Tensions within the group immediately grew as Wilders discovered himself to be to the right of most members and challenged the party line in his public speeches. He was kicked from the VVD parliamentary party and went into the VVD in September 2004, leaving him a member of the 1990s to form his own political party, Groep Wilders, which was later renamed the Party for Independence. The primary issue for the VVD party line was his refusal to endorse the party's assertion that EU accession talks must begin with Turkey.

The Party for Freedom's political platform often overlaps with those of assassinated Rotterdam politician Pim Fortuyn and his Pim Fortuyn List. Fortuyn's legacy endured after his death, as more and more politicians attempted to gain political traction by specifically addressing topics such as a ban on immigration that was, from a politically correct viewpoint, unmentionable in the Netherlands, until Fortuyn appeared and upended the Dutch tradition of consensus politics with an anti-immigration stance. The Wilders will inherit Fortuyn's constituency. According to the Party for Freedom, the government wants a €16 billion tax cut, a stricter approach to recreational drug use, more spending in roads and other infrastructure, building nuclear power plants, and including animal rights in the Dutch constitution. The Party for Freedom, which was the first parliamentary election in the Netherlands, received 9 out of the 150 open seats.

Wilders said "I want to be Prime Minister" in March 2009, predicting that the PVV will become the Netherlands' largest party in a party meeting in Venlo. "At some point, it's going to happen, and then it'll be a great honor to be Prime Minister."

According to polls carried out by Maurice de Hond, the Party for Freedom was the most popular parliamentary group in March 2009. According to the polls, the party would gain 21% of the national election, winning 32 out of 150 seats in the Dutch parliament. Wilders would be a major power broker if the polling results were replicated in an election. In these circumstances, there is also a chance of him becoming the Netherlands Prime Minister. This has been partially attributed to timely legal charges against him for hate speech and the travel ban levied by the United Kingdom, as well as dissatisfaction with the Dutch government's response to the global financial crisis of 2008-2009.

In the municipalities of The Netherlands, elections for the local councils were held on March 3, 2010. Due to a lack of qualified candidates, the PVV was only contesting these municipal elections in the Dutch towns The Hague and Almere. The big gains that were announced indicated that the party and Wilders would dominate the political scene in the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled on June 9, 2010. In Almere, the PVV defeated the Dutch Labour Party in The Hague and came second second. According to preliminary results, the PVV gained 21% of the vote in Almere, relative to Labour's 18 percent. The PVV had 8 seats in The Hague, second only to Labour with ten seats.

Wilders declared on March 8 that he would have a seat on the Hague city council after it became clear that he had won 13,000 preferential votes. He had already stated that if he were to win, he would not take up a seat. The PVV gained 13.5 percent of the vote in the 2010 parliamentary elections, rising from 9 to 24 (out of 150). PVV is the third party in size thanks to this. At least three groups were required for a absolute majority in a split parliament. The PVV and a VVD and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) coalition was negotiated by a coalition of VVD and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), which was backed by the PVV in parliament. The PVV did not join the VVD and CDA's government, but rather actively participated in the discussions and, as a result of the result, that they did not accept any motion to dismiss ministers on topics covered in a so-called "support deal" – much like the Danish People's Party's role. The very fact that Wilders' party was involved in these talks sparked tense discussions in political circles.

Wilders regained the Rutte cabinet's blessing on April 21, 2012, as a result of new austerity steps that were about to be introduced. Wilders cited the "European dictates" as the reason for the 3% ruling on European countries' budget deficit, although his party had supported these policies earlier on. Wilders was blamed by the cabinet for his "lack of political will" and "political cowardice" in relation to tackling the Netherlands' economic woes. In September, Wilders' withdrawal from the talks resulted in new elections. Wilders and the PVV ran on a movement to bring the Netherlands out of the European Union and to return to the guilder. The PV gained 10.1% of the vote and 15 seats in parliament, a decrease of 9 seats.

Wilders' Party for Freedom won only two municipalities, The Hague and Almere, in March 2014, and suffered modest losses in both. However, international media coverage of the elections was dominated by Wilders after he led his followers in a rousing chant (calling for "fewer, fewer... Moroccans") at an election night party rally. (see Trials) Eventually, this resulted in a new trial for him.

The Party for Freedom gained 17.0% of the vote and four seats in the European Parliament's May 2014 election, down slightly to the 13.3% that the party had received in the previous parliamentary elections. Wilders collaborated with Marine Le Pen of France in the run-up to and aftermath of those European elections to try to establish a new parliamentary group in the European Parliament. Wilders first announced their collaboration during a joint press conference in November 2013 where Wilders promised that "today is the beginning of the liberation of the European elite, the unstoppable in Brussels." Wilders toured Sweden Democratic Party and met with Heinz-Christian Strache, the Austrian Freedom Party's chief, to help bring about the alliance, even though he turned down Hungary's Jobbik and Germany's NPD because he wanted to exclude "right-wing militant and racist" groups from Hungary's "right-wing radical and nationalist parties. Le Pen and Wilders held another press conference, this time with Harald Vilimsky of Austria's Northern League and Gerolf Annemans of Belgium's Flemish Interest Party, promising that a new parliamentary group would be formed three days after the results were concluded. Eventually, the campaign ended in failure because it could only unite parties from six EU member states, one less than is permitted by legislative laws. This was in part due to the failure to include the Greek Golden Dawn or Poland's Congress of the New Right, and in part because some groups such as the Danish People's Party and the True Finns refused to participate.

The Party for Freedom won 11.7% of the vote nationally in March 2015, down slightly from the 12.4% of the 2011 provincial election.

With Wilders at the helm, the PVV fought in the 2017 general election. Despite leading opinion polls for the PVV for the majority of the time, most of the time, all major parties have ruled out joining coalitions with the PVV, effectively excluding the possibility of participating, let alone leading, the next government. Even if the PVV gained the most seats, it could have been locked out of office. Wilders predicted that if his party gained the most seats, a "revolution" would take place, but that government will remain closed out of office.

Since winning 20 seats, 5 more than in 2012, the PVV achieved second place in a second place.

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Awards and recognition

• Oriana Fallaci Free Speech Award in 2009
• Nominated for Sakharov Prize in 2010
• Dutch Politician of the Year 2010
• Dutch Politician of the Year 2013
• Dutch Politician of the Year 2015
• Dutch Politician of the Year 2016
• The Hungarian Order of Merit in 2022