The Freedom Party (PVV), led by anti-Islamist and Europhobe Geert Wilders, is the largest party in the Dutch parliament, according to the official vote count. gives him 37 out of 150 available places, ahead of the left bloc PvdA-GL (25) and the right-wing liberals VVD (24).

With 98.5% of the votes counted, The number of parties gaining access to the Dutch parliament will increase this Thursday to 15 out of 26 groups. who stood in yesterday’s general election, with the anti-racist party BIJ1 and the seniors’ interest party 50Plus losing their representation in parliament.

The PVV party won the most seats in the legislative elections. with 37 compared to the 17 he had so far, It is followed by a large gap (25 seats) by the left bloc formed by the Social Democrats PvdA and the Greens GroenLinks (PvdA-GL) led by former Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, which has risen by 8 seats.

The right-wing liberal party BBB, to which the outgoing prime minister belongs. Mark Rutte and which was led by the Turkish-Dutch Dilan Yesilgez in a campaign promising tough policies on immigration and asylum, suffered an electoral blow, losing 10 seats and leaving 24 deputies.

In fourth place is the Christian Democratic Party “New Social Contract” (NSC). Peter Omtzigt, which enters through for the first time in the 20-seat Chamber.

In addition to the VVD, the three other parties that form the current government coalition with Rutte, the same one that governed the Netherlands between 2017 and 2021, They were also punished in elections. The left-liberal D66 party lost 15 seats and now has 9, the Christian Democratic Party CDA loses 10 and remains with 5, and the fourth partner, Unión Cristiana, rises from 5 to 3.

Local newspapers are talking this Thursday about a “political avalanche” and that “The Netherlands has made a right turn”and they highlight the dilemmas now faced by the major parties that supported Wilders in the elections, since the PVV will not be able to govern alone and needs, as is usually the case in this country, at least two coalition partners.

All eyes are on the VVD and the SNB, two center-right parties that could sit down at the negotiating table with the PVV, although Yesilgez last night noted that he does not see himself in a cabinet in which Wilders is prime minister. “The voter spoke out and said: we’re fed up!” said the far-right leader after learning the data.

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However, last night Wilders said that will not promote anti-Islamic measures such as banning the Quran or the closure of Islamic schools (both on his campaign platform) and vowed to “stick to the Constitution” in an attempt to speed up the school period, which officially begins this Friday.

Who is Geert Wilders?

Despite not appearing in public often due to threats he received, Geert Wilders created a strong political movement. anti-Muslim, anti-immigration and anti-European since 2006.

Wilders, born in Venlo 60 years ago, entered politics in 1990 as a member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). merger of two liberal and progressive groups it has little to do with the far right. Acting Prime Minister Mark Rutte belongs to the VVD.

He spent eight years writing speeches for the party before joining Parliament as a Liberal MP. In 2006 he founded the Party for Freedom (PVV). after breaking with the VVD over disagreements over Turkey’s application for membership in the European Union (EU), and began building his own anti-Muslim and anti-European movement.

“The Dutch will be the priority again. The Dutch people will take back their country and the tsunami of refugees and immigrants will be contained,” Wilders promised the cheering crowd on election night.

The program with which he was introduced calls for a referendum on leaving the European Union (Nexit)enforcing strict anti-immigration and anti-asylum policies, closing mosques and banning the Koran – a position that led to numerous conflicts over the years, including with former Queen Beatrix for wearing a veil in a mosque in Oman.

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Wilders was once called Donald Trump’s prodigal son. due to both his physical resemblance to the former American president, such as his very well-groomed blond hair, and his rhetoric against Islam, which forced him to surround himself with bodyguards due to the threats he received.

In 2016, a Dutch court gave him a symbolic sentence for insults directed at a group of Moroccans. Wilders shouted in the street whether they wanted “more or less Moroccans in the Netherlands”, to which the audience chanted: “Less, less.”

His opposition to immigration is paradoxical because Wilders is a second-generation immigrant. originally from the Dutch East Indies: he is the son of a young woman born in Sukabumi, in what is now Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

His grandparents, practicing Catholics of mixed descent, They emigrated to the Netherlands after the collapse of the Dutch colony.

This populist, often described by his people as resourceful and with great political acumen, is considered “vulnerable, nervous and attached to his mobile phone”, according to liberal Hans van Baalen. Rarely leaving home for safety reasons, Wilders lives on social networks to insult some, applaud others or share fake news.

High school teachers remember him as student “with few friends” who loved to talk about politics, and that chatty child still lives on in the adult Wilders: he is still a loner who only talks about politics, according to those who know him.

“He does not participate in any social events. We convinced him to go to the Christmas party, but it was impossible to talk about his personal life,” said Hans Hoogervorst, another colleague.

When Wilders was only twenty years old, he said I knew his first girlfriend, but after a few years he divorced and remarried in 1992. Christina Marfai, Jewish Hungarian diplomat.

It was before he met her that Wilders, a young tourist, began frequenting the place. Israel, a country he admires and defends even in his election platform.which includes the transfer of the Dutch embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

His traveling companion was his older brother, now his big detractor, with whom you no longer speak for “political reasons.” Wilders is the black sheep of the political scene and of his family, in which the first-born son claimed to “love” Geert but did not share his ideas because they “crossed” the red line.

(according to information from EFE)