(BBC News) 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.
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 in 2009.
But Europe’s far right believes their views have become more mainstream.
The winds of change are here!” said Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban after seeing the Dutch election results.
