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The unexpectedly meaty win for controversial, hard-right politician Geert Wilders in Wednesday’s general election in the Netherlands set international headlines on fire.
Right-wing nationalists across Europe rushed to congratulate the populist politician, sometimes dubbed the Dutch Trump - partly for his dyed, bouffant-like hairdo, and partly for his famously firebrand rhetoric.
Geert Wilders’ publicly expressed views - including linking Muslim immigration with terrorism and calling for a ban on mosques and the Quran - are so provocative that he has been under tight police protection since 2004.
Wilders was convicted of inciting discrimination, although later acquitted, and he was refused entry to the UK back in 2009.
But Europe’s far right believes their views have now become more mainstream.
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So we often don’t get to see politics from Europe because of how loud American politics are. But what’s up with the spread of extremist right wing ideology over yonder?
Voters really really don’t like mass immigration.
They don’t like what they’re told about it
This might be a factor, but it’s far from being the only one. Spain has had a far right resurgence in recent years, which hasn’t resulted in a far right party getting more than 13% of votes, but it’s dragging the largest right wing party to its positions in matters of tolerance and environmentalism, and the immigration to Spain hasn’t been too significant since 2009.
Look at Trump, he’s the same type of right wing nutter. Bullies that ride into power of populism, blaming certain groups of people for everyone’s unhappiness. Deliberately stir up discontent into a fervour and then putting forward a simple yet extreme solution. There’s your answer. It’s happening all over the world including the US.
It’s reminiscent of the 1930’s Hitler and Mussolini.
The failed integration of millions of refugees and the resulting increase in crime might be to blame
This picture was chosen intentionally to make it seem he has horns?
It is almost impossible to find a good picture tho, he has a hard to love face
He looks like if you took Trumps hair and put it on Jay Leno
Deontay needs to get his brother
Intoletance has originally always been a right wing mainstay and that is why the PVV are lumped in with that. But if you look at their program, apart from the anti-islam rhetoric, they want affordable care and lower the pension age. Clear centrist/left-wing viewpoints. And this is overlooked by the oversimplifying media. Yes, PVV are riding on the wave of anti immigration sentiment. But they reached this level of support by not being fascists like the FvD for example. The old left/right wing nomenclature is not sufficient to describe the ways parties amd society change.
On any case, the foreign media is tarring the PVV voters with the brush of racist extremists, and the reality is much, much more nuanced.
… they want affordable care and lower the pension age. Clear centrist/left-wing viewpoints
They didn’t let the CBP check their plans and have shared very little about how they plan to pay for it. Anyone can be in favor of lower pensions, affordable care, no tax raises, and more housing, promises cost nothing.
Yes, I know. But I was not making the point the PVV are not promlematic. Read what I wrote.
My point was that the media is portraying his voters as rabit right-wing bigots, and that is simply not true. dangeourly he managed to appeal to the centre, and people that look for housing, healthcare and spending power without too much interest in his extreme rhetoric.
I’ve read what you wrote. I meant to say that they can make promises from all across the political spectrum because they never have to actually implement anything. They can appeal to people who want lower pensions, people who want higher pensions and people who want less taxes at the same time.
But that’s hardly the point.
Look, I am not saying Wilders is not a creep. But their success right now is despite him and his anti-constitutional viewpoints. There was room for a big populist party with mass appeal and they fill that void. And the media is misrepresenting his voters. I am not one of them, and would never be, but I do know quite a few of people that switched to PVV and they did so because they felt he would work to get the lower middle class and elderly a better standard of living, something all other parties seem to fail to deliver on.
Countries haven’t implemented any safeguards against anti-democracy. These kinds of horrible individuals shouldn’t even be able to be an option in an election
