Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders at the Republican National Convention, Cleveland, U.S., July 19, 2016 (AP photo by Carolyn Kaster).
Will Geert Wilders’ Rise Change the Face of the Netherlands?
Tracy Brown Hamilton Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016
Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders doesn’t hate Muslims—he just hates Islam, or so he said in 2008. And his feelings haven’t changed: In a television interview earlier this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of Wilders’ right-wing, populist Party for Freedom (PVV), he said that “by and large, Muslims aren’t the problem. Islam is.”
Wilders built the PVV on a platform of anti-immigration, euroskepticism and a pledge to stop what he calls the Islamization of the Netherlands. “My goal,” he said in the same television interview, “is to speak the truth other parties don’t dare speak, for fear of being called racist or receiving threats.” ...