Meet Geert Wilders: The New Face of Fascism
The Netherlands seem poised to elect Europe’s most dangerous leader since Hitler.
This Wednesday the Netherlands hits the polls, with a chance to elect Europe’s most openly problematic leader in more than half a century.
Geert Wilders is the enigmatic leader and founder of Holland’s Party for Freedom, and is currently in prime position to finish atop Holland’s Prime Minister elections.
Yes, Wilders looks like an alternate rendering of Draco Malfoy, or every bad guy in every superhero movie ever. He dons a platinum-blonde hairdo that would even make Donald Trump’s nest do a double take. But in real life, he’s the racist, anti-islamic, sexist, xenophobe that may just well become the new face in Europe’s growing shift toward right-wing populism. He’s also irrevocably more dangerous than the aforementioned Trump.
The career politician has also made a living being known for his violently notorious far-right ideas, and in his few decades in politics, he has positioned himself as Europe’s foremost leader against immigration. Choosing anti-Islamism as his first-frontier in the populist fight to “make Europe great again.” He was even mentioned by name 30 times in the manifesto of Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik.
It’s the sort of international infamy that’s placed him squarely on Al-Qaeda’s kill list, and led to an exhaustingly immutable 24-hour security detail for over a decade. He has very publicly declared himself a leader of Europe’s anti-Islam movement, serving as a martyr of sorts, willingly putting himself in the crossfire: his book is even titled Marked For Death. (It’s also of note that multiple members of that same kill list have been assassinated, with the most recent being in 2015’s Charlie Hebdo attacks.)
His now estranged elder brother Paul Wilder describes his brother’s life as such:
“Few politicians have as little contact with the people as Geert. He simply cannot go out into the street. He and his wife have been living in a secret location for 12 years, and they need permanent personal security. He has already received several serious death threats from Islamists. There is always security staff outside the door when he is in his apartment. He needs bodyguards when he goes shopping. They even attend our family events. Geert’s world has become very small. It consists of the parliament, public events and his apartment. He can hardly go anywhere else. He is socially isolated and alienated from everyday life. This isn’t good for anyone.”
But what would his election mean?
Much has been made of Europe’s shift toward nationalism and far-right conservatism— but a Wilders victory could signal its official start.
Although each of Holland’s political parties have promised to refuse a coalition government with Wilders, preventing him from actual premiership, he may not even need it. Truth is, He’s already won. As he’s successfully normalized the sort of divisive rhetoric Europe had sworn off in the wake of WWII.
Proof of which can be found as early as this year, in current Prime Minister and opposition leader Mark Rutte’s taking out of a full-length newspaper ad that most would attribute to Wilders himself, in an attempt to reach out to some of Wilders growing base.
With that said, a win in Wednesday’s election would stand to set a scary precedent for the future, and with the looming threat of Europe’s fight against populism, threatens to fan the flames on Europe’s already burning sense of self. Wilders has positioned himself with far-right leaders like current Hungarian President Viktor Urban, and hopefuls in France’s Marie La Pen, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, and the UK’s cascading carousel of Brexit proponents.
Wilders is, in a nutshell, symptomatic of the sort of classic populism we’ve come to relate with Europe: anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-elitism, and establishment. Whatever that even means anymore. He’s done a masterful job at presenting himself as separate to the “political class”, which is ironic as the now 53-year-old Wilders has been in politics since he was 28.
He considers himself “culturally conservative”, and “socially liberal”, referencing his positions on same-sex marriage, women, and Israel as supposed proof of this. He dangerously hides his fascism under the sheathing guise of convenient liberalism. And when contrasted with La Pen in France and Salvini in Italy, the differences in policy are unignorable, with Islam essentially serving as their only common ground.
But, just to be clear: Wilders isn’t a man with disagreement to Islam. Rather, he wants to eradicate it from the earth. He doesn’t want to police mosques, he wants to ban them outright. And he doesn’t want to “reform” muslim immigration, he wants to end it all together. He’s the sort of leader we have not seen publicly emboldened in this way in generations, and the fallout could be devastating.
Wilders in America.
Wilders bleach-blonde pompadour works to compliment his larger than life persona. It may also be some of what had initially endeared him to the American ideological fringe.
He has friends in high places in the United States, among them: Michelle Bachman, congressman Steve King, and David Horowitz, who donated over $125,000 to Wilders campaign (the largest sum in the country this year). He was also a regular contributor to Breitbart News under Donald Trump’s now chief strategist Steve Bannon. So, with his countless ties to the White House, and a meeting with Trump still an eventual possibility, it’s safe to say that the Wilders threat has officially hit close to home.
He’s done all of this by tapping into what he calls a “patriotic spring.” He says stuff like, “Islam and freedom are incompatible,” compares the Quran to Mein Kampf, and denies Islam recognition as a religion, calling it an ideology instead.
He sees his attacks on Islam as targeting a set of ideas, not people. So when he calls Dutch-born Moroccans “scum”, he’s attacking their ideas, not them. (Unfortunately the Dutch courts didn’t agree, convicting him of “inciting discrimination”, for similar comments made in 2014.)
Wilders on Islam: Islam is not a religion, it’s an ideology, the ideology of a retarded culture. I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people.
In short, he frames himself a liberator, protecting against an inventible influx of African and Arab migrants, and their eventual creation of a “Eurabia” — a phenomenon he’s become obsessed with.
The major difference with Wilders though, comes in the fact that Wilders is, unlike Trump, a career politician. These ideas are far from new for him, and he’s made a career from them. He’s the third longest serving member of Dutch parliament, and his status as such presents a unique threat, and one we can’t reckon in the same way to the newcomer Trump.
We must acknowledge as well: the rise of Donald Trump is due, in part, to characters like Wilders, not the other way around. And although the veneration he’s received in America is well taken by a man that hasn’t been able to safely walk down a street at home in over a decade — understand that his rise is due to a growing American base, and their response to a sweeping international trend to the right.
Geert Wilders has risen from cult hero to international infamy in a matter of months. And as we see his sort of rhetoric become increasingly normalized, it’s important to recognize his threat. He is is the realization of everything we fear in Donald Trump — but worse, as he’s rode Trump’s populist wave all the way to the ballot box.
Plainly: Wilders is the new, faux-blonde, face of fascism. A title so often falsely attributed to Trump.
So with both the French and German elections on the horizon, and the bitter sting of Brexit still fresh, the writing may very well be on the wall for Europe. And Wilders election could be the confirmation of all of this that we never got with Trump.
If that’s the case, people had better get used to it. Because, there’s a lot more where that came from.
