Netherlands General Election: Anti-Islam Populist Wilders Seeks Coalition Partners after Shock Win

Nov 23, 2023 | Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders said Thursday he is ready to join the next Dutch coalition government after he surged to a huge election victory that marked a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance. FRANCE 24's European Affairs Editor Armen Georgian tells us more.

Populist Geert Wilders Emerges as Winner in the Dutch Elections, Might Fall Short of Governing

Nov 23, 2023 | The party of far-right populist Geert Wilders is set to emerge as the largest force after elections in the Netherlands. Early results point to the Freedom Party winning 35 of the 150 seats in parliament. Many other parties have ruled out working with Wilders and his party.

Anti-Islam Populist Geert Wilders Wins Dutch Election | BBC News

Nov 23, 2023 | Geert Wilders, a veteran anti-Islam populist leader, has won a dramatic victory in the Dutch general election, according to the latest forecast. After 25 years in parliament, his Freedom party (PVV) is set to win 37 seats, well ahead of his nearest rival, a left-wing alliance. "The PVV can no longer be ignored," he said. His win has shaken Dutch politics and it will send a shock across Europe too.

Netherlands Election | Geert Wilders Won Dutch Elections with His Anti-Islamist Campaign | N18V

Nov 23, 2023 | The far-right, anti-Islam party of firebrand politician Geert Wilders has won a stunning victory in the Dutch election, partial results showed on Wednesday, a political bombshell that will resound in Europe and around the world. His PVV (Freedom Party) won 35 seats in parliament, a landslide according to initial results and a generally reliable exit poll. A left-wing bloc trailed far behind on 25 seats, with the centre-right party on 24.

Dutch Former Anti-Islam MP Says He's Become a Muslim

THE TELEGRAPH: A former far-Right MP who once called Islam "the biggest disease to have hit our country in the last hundred years" has become a Muslim in a shock conversion.

Joram van Klaveren was an MP from 2010 until 2017 for the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) led by anti-Islam and anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders. Mr van Klaveren once fiercely advocated Mr Wilders' policies of banning the Koran and closing down mosques.

However, he has now said that he discovered out he had more in common with Islam than he initially thought when he started research for a book criticising the religion, which caused him to completely change his view.

Mr van Klaveren said: "I looked at the Bible on my bookshelf, on the table were books about the Prophet Muhammad. "The prior years I had a big aversion to Islam. When you then have to conclude that you were wrong, it is not a fun moment. But while searching for God I always felt a certain unease. And that slowly disappeared. It felt a bit like coming home in a religious way." » | Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Dutch Elections: The Geert Wilders Effect Explained

Geert Wilders, the populist leader of the Freedom party (PVV), has benefited from a fragmentation in Dutch politics. But despite topping several polls, his party is likely to attract less than 20% of the vote and he has no real hope of winning power in a post-election coalition in the Netherlands. So should the attention-seeking Geert Wilders simply be ignored?

Read the Guardian article here

Geert Wilders Talks with Ezra Levant

TheRebel.media's Ezra Levant sat down with Geert Wilders of the Netherlands on Feb. 23, 2017.

Geert Wilders: Close All Mosques In The Netherlands

BREITBART.COM: Leader of Netherlands’ most popular party Geert Wilders has proposed a closure of all Mosques in the country and a total ban on the Koran ahead of the 2017 general election.

Leader of the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders has proposed the most radical anti-Islamisation platform for any party in European politics. Wilders, whose PVV are currently top of all major polls in the Netherlands, has declared that the new platform for the party ahead of the general elections in 2017 will include the plan to close all Mosques in the country and place a ban on the Islamic holy book, the Koran. Wilders claims that the move is to counter the Islamisation he sees ongoing in the country reports Belgian paper Demorgen. » | Chris Tomlinson | Saturday, August 27, 2016

Paris Attacks Boost Support for Dutch Anti-Islam Populist Wilders

YAHOO! NEWS: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Support for the anti-Islamic Freedom Party of Dutch populist Geert Wilders has jumped to its highest level in more than a year after the Islamist militant attacks in Paris.

Wilders, known for his inflammatory rhetoric, said after the Paris bloodshed that the West was "at war" with Islam, drawing a rebuke from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Sunday.

If elections were held now, his party would be the single largest in the Netherlands, with 31 seats in the 150-member parliament, more than twice as many as it won in the last elections, according to a Sunday poll.

The governing Liberal and Labour parties, damaged by persistent sluggish growth, would have just 28 seats between them, compared to the 79 they held after the 2012 elections. » | Reuters | Sunday, January 11, 2015

European Election Upset for Geert Wilders as Dutch Turn Cold on Anti-EU Party

Dutch right-wing 'Partij voor de Vrijheid' (PVV) leader Geert Wilders
poses for the media after voting for the European Parliament

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Dutch exit polls confound predictions to leave far-Right and anti-Islam leader with 12.2 per cent of vote, behind all pro-EU mainstream political parties

Geert Wilders came fourth in European elections in the Netherlands on Thursday night, confounding predictions that he would lead a populist and far-Right backlash against the European Union across the continent.

Dutch exit polls put the far-Right and anti-Islam leader on 12.2 per cent of the vote, putting him behind all the pro-EU mainstream political parties.

'Definitive' exit polls put him behind the ruling centrist VVD on 12.3 per cent and almost three per cent behind the pro-EU D66 liberals and Christian Democrats, each on over 15 per cent.

Previous opinion polls had put Mr Wilders in the lead but there was widespread controversy over his alliance with the France’s Front National and the exit polls suggested that his share of the vote fell, compared with 2009, by 4.8 percentage points.

The result is a major blow to Mr Wilders who will lose a seat in the European Parliament with his MEPs now reduced to three out a total of 26 Dutch representatives. » | Bruno Waterfield, Scheveningen | Thursday, May 22, 2014

Dutch Lap Up Wilders' Hardline Message

BBC: In the Netherlands many polls are predicting the maverick anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) will win the European elections being held on 22 May.

And a recent race row - he told supporters a vote for the PVV would mean fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands - may have done him more good than harm.

This talk is too extreme for many - so what explains his appeal to Dutch voters? I took a spin around The Hague on my bike to find out.

Geert Wilders' Moroccan comments provoked an avalanche of criticism. High-profile PVV members quit, accusing their leader of going too far. More than 5,000 people filed complaints to the public prosecutor, calling for Mr Wilders to be charged with inciting racial hatred. (+ BBC video) » | Anna Holligan | BBC News | The Hague | Saturday, April 26, 2014

Close Adviser to Geert Wilders Resigns from Freedom Party

Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders speaks during an
interview in The Hague on April 17th.

IRISH TIMES: Series of resignations follows row over anti-Moroccan chanting at rally

One month from the European elections, Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders suffered another major setback yesterday when one of his closest advisers resigned – suggesting as he left that a row over anti-Moroccan chanting had left his party marginalised.

The Freedom Party has lost its dominant position in the polls and there have been a series of resignations, including the loss of two MPs, since Mr Wilders led the chanting at a rally last month – the first time he’d focused on a particular nationality rather than on “Muslims”.

National outrage, even among his own more conservative supporters, has prompted suggestions that the chanting was a huge political gaffe – which could effectively put paid to plans for a pan-European right-wing Euro-election alliance with Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France. » | Peter Cluskey | Thursday, April 24, 2014

Geert Wilders Looks to Alliance with Front National, Other EU Parties
DUTCHNEWS.NL: Anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders is looking to form an alliance with other similarly-minded parties, including France's Front National, to fight next year's European elections, the Volkskrant reports on Saturday.

Wilders, who leads the PVV in parliament, recently met Front National leader Marine Le Pen for lunch to discuss his ideas for a pan-European approach.

'We think the same abou[t] 90% of things, perhaps more,' Wilders said in the Volkskrant interview. 'We also have a lot of points of agreement in terms of immigration.' Many meetings » | DutchNews.nl | Saturday, April 27, 2013

Former Anti-immigrant Figure Converts to Islam
IRISH TIMES: In an extraordinary personal and political transformation, a former senior member of Geert Wilders’s virulently anti-immigrant Freedom Party (PVV) has converted to Islam – saying it was the party’s anti-Muslim rhetoric which led him to look more deeply into his new religion.

Arnoud van Doorn (46), formerly vice-chair of the PVV group on The Hague city council, announced his conversion on Twitter, first with a tweet saying he was about to make “a new beginning” – and later with another in Arabic proclaiming the Shahadah, his public declaration of belief.

Before leaving the PVV last year to set up a new party, Independent The Hague, Mr van Doorn was regarded as a staunch supporter of Mr Wilders, who wants to end immigration from non-western countries and described Islam as “a retarded culture” and the Koran as “a fascist book”.

Mr van Doorn – who is married, with three foster children – first declined to comment on his conversion, claiming his faith was “a private matter”, but subsequently appeared on al-Jazeera television to say the decision had been “a difficult one” and “not taken lightly”. » | Peter Cluskey in The Hague | Saturday, March 09, 2013

DEUTSCH TÜRKISCHES JOURNAL: Nicht der erste Politiker mit erstaunlichem Sinneswandel: Ende Februar twitterte Arnoud van Doorn, bis 2011 Vize-Vorsitzender der PVV-Fraktion im Gemeinderat Den Haag, das islamische Glaubensbekenntnis. Van Doorn ist nicht der erste Ex-Wilders-Anhänger mit einem erstaunlichen Sinneswandel. » | Von André Krause | Freitag, 08. März 2013

Related »

Arnoud van Doorn Accepts Islam
ISLAM STORY – EXTRACTS: “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger”

By this phrase the ex-member of Geert Wilders’s right-wing anti-Islam Freedom Party, Arnoud van Doorn, surprisingly declared his conversion to Islam.

…

‘After communicating with a Muslim colleague at The Hague’s city council- and after long discussions in fact- he directed me to the Sunni mosque where I was embraced with all kindness and affection. My decision came later as I freely embraced Islam. And it is one of my own, out of the question.”

And on quitting a party known with its open enmity against Islam, and being at time one of its voices, Doorn said: ‘We all make mistakes. But, regardless of that, I see for every life experience there’s a meaning. And my own experience has its relevance to my new choice.’

‘I’ve learned so much from such experience. And I believe it is the reason why I am a Muslim now. It is a new beginning of my life I ask God to guide me through’, He concluded. … » | Tuesday, March 05, 2013

''And by my conversion to Islam I have the feeling that I finally found my path. ¶ ''I realize that this is a new start and that I still have much to learn as well.'' ¶ Departing from his earlier life as a PVV member, Doorn expects much resistance in his political life. ¶ ''The expectation is that I will continue to face much resistance, also from certain government institutions,'' he said. ¶ ''I have all faith in Allah to support me and to guide me through these moments.'' Read all »

Lien en relation avec cette histoire »

Arnoud van Doorn : de la haine à l’islam
AL KANZ: Arnoud van Doorn. Parfait inconnu hier, cet homme politique néerlandais est aujourd’hui mondialement connu. Explications.

Arnoud van Doorn. Ce nom ne dira pas grand-chose au plus grand nombre. Parfait inconnu jusqu’au 27 février dernier, date à laquelle cet homme politique néerlandais a tweeté la shahada (attestation de foi) en arabe, Arnoud van Doorn est aujourd’hui un homme célèbre, à tout le moins dans le monde musulman.

Au moment où nous rédigeons ce billet, ce message sur Twitter a été retweeté, c’est-à-dire posté une nouvelle fois par d’autres internautes, 8 757 fois et mis en favoris 3 573 fois. Il n’est généralement que les célébrités (show business, sport, politique, etc.) ayant plusieurs centaines de milliers ou plusieurs millions de followers (internautes sur Twitter qui suivent un compte) qui voient parfois leurs messages atteindre de tels sommets.

Or Arnoud van Doorn n’est ni une star du show business ni un sportif connu. Mieux, le 21 février dernier, il ne comptait que 985 followers contre 14 679 aujourd’hui.

Arnoud van Doorn est un homme politique qui militait dans un parti. Pas n’importe quel parti, au regard de sa conversion à l’islam. Arnoud van Doorn était proche de… l’islamophobe Geert Wilders, chef de file du PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid), un parti nationaliste néerlandais qui milite férocement contre l’islam et les musulmans. D’où la coloration toute particulière que prend cette conversion. » | vendredi 08 mars 2013

Lien en relation avec l’article ici »

Pays-Bas : ancien islamophobe du PVV, il se convertit à l’islam

SAPHIR NEWS: Aux Pays-Bas, Arnoud Van Doorn, ancien membre du parti d'extrême droite de Geert Wilders, le Parti pour la Liberté (PVV) a créé la surprise en annonçant s’être converti à l’islam. Quand on connait la position extrêmement virulente de ce parti à l’égard de la religion musulmane, il y a de quoi être étonné.

Mais le 27 février dernier, c’est bien la chahada (profession de foi) en arabe qu’a tweeté l’ancien porte-parole du PVV sur son compte twitter : « J'atteste qu'il n'y a d'autre Dieu que Dieu et j'atteste que Muhammad est Son Messager ». M. Van Doom a ensuite confirmé sa conversion à l’islam dans une interview accordée à la chaîne Al Jazeera.

« Je peux comprendre que ma conversion laisse sceptique, surtout qu'elle était inattendue pour beaucoup. Mais pas par mes proches, eux savaient que je m'informais sur cette religion par le biais du Coran, de hadiths, de la sunna et d’autres textes depuis presque un an », a-t-il déclaré. » | Rédigé par La Rédaction | jeudi 07 mars 2013

Lien en relation avec l'article »

Geert Wilders Party Member, Arnoud van Doorn, Accepts Islam
NEW MUSLIM: “I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger”

By this phrase the ex-member of Geert Wilders’s right-wing anti-Islam Freedom Party, Arnoud van Doorn, surprisingly declared his conversion to Islam.

Via his account on the famous social networking site,Twitter, Arnoud announced in Dutch his ‘Nieuwe start’ (New start) as a Muslim. The news was confirmed in Dutch news as well.

The news is one of the latest breaking in the Netherlands.

Till the end of 2011, Arnoud van Doorn was a member of the fiery, far-right, anti-Islam, anti-immigration Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) Dutch party.

On February 27, 2013, Arnoud posted a tweet in Arabic declaring his Shahadah (Testimony of Faith): Ashhadu an-la ilaha illallah, wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu (I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger).

The phrase is known as the First Pillar of Islam that in order for a person to be a Muslim this conviction is firstly needed.

Given his previous explicit views on Islam, Arnoud’s story was a shock to many who doubted and harshly criticized the announcement, which is still a subject of debate on twitter. In another tweet, he expressed his grief and discomfort with ‘the many hateful comments on social media’.

Arnoud account was deluged with hundreds of followers and positive comments backing and congratulating his choice. To them he posted a late tweet in both English and Arabic expressing his gratitude: ‘Thanks for all the support!’

In face of strong attacks on Twitter, Arnoud declined to comment on the reasons or circumstances behind his conversion, confirming that the choice is his own and that his religion was ‘a matter of privacy’. » | Monday, February 04, 2013

ON ISLAM: Far-right Dutch Politician Finds Islam: AMSTERDAM – A leading member in far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders’ party has reverted to Islam after an extensive study about the Islamic religion and Muslims. ¶ “I can understand people are skeptic, especially that it is unexpected for many of them,” Arnoud Van Doorn told Al-Jazeera English satellite channel. ¶ “This is a very big decision, which I have not taken lightly.” » | Tuesday, March 05, 2013

AMSTERDAM HERALD: From Wilders to Muhammad: Former Freedom Party vice-chairman converts to Islam: A former member of Geert Wilders’s anti-immigration Freedom Party has converted to Islam. » | Friday, March 01, 2013

Dutch Christian Democrat MPs Approve Deal with Anti-Islam MP
THE TELEGRAPH: Dutch Christian Democrat MPs unanimously approved a deal on Tuesday for the formation of a minority rightist government backed by the party of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders.

Dutch Christian Democrats (CDA) leader Maxime Verhagen talks to the press. Photo: The Telegraph
"All 21 members (of parliament) will support the implementation of the governing agreement" between the Christian Democratic Action (CDA) and the rightist, pro-business Party for Freedom (PVV), CDA leader Maxime Verhagen told journalists after a party caucus meeting in The Hague.

The deal will see the controversial PVV remain outside of government but providing the majority support the minority coalition will need to pass decisions through parliament – in exchange for a say in policy-making.

Mr Wilders, who campaigns for a ban on the burka and an end to Muslim immigration, went on trial in Amsterdam on Monday on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. >>> | Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Geert Wilders to Enter Dutch Government After Support for Anti-Islamic Party Triples
THE TELEGRAPH: Geert Wilders is on course to become a kingmaker for a new coalition government in the Netherlands after his anti-Islamic Freedom Party nearly tripled its representation in the Dutch parliament in Wednesday's elections.

The far-Right Dutch politician's controversial PVV party came third, behind Labour and the victorious Liberals.

PVV increased its number of MPs from nine to 24 after campaigning against immigration, for a tax on Muslim headscarves, a ban on the Koran and against the building of new mosques.

"We would love to govern," Mr Wilders said. "1.5 million people voted for us and our plans for more safety, less immigration and less Islam. We are the big winner and they cannot ignore us. We want to be taken seriously."

Mark Rutte, the leader of the centre-right Liberal VVD and the man expected to be the next Dutch prime minister, hailed his party's unprecedented victory. "It appears as if for the first time in our history that the VVD has become the largest party in the Netherlands," he said.

Mr Rutte's VVD is now expected to form a Right-wing coalition government with Mr Wilders and the Christian Democrat CDA, after that party lost 20 seats to fall from first to fourth place in Dutch politics. >>> Bruno Waterfield | Thursday, June 10, 2010