Geert Wilders’s Followers (32)

Geert Wilders

Born

in Venlo , Netherlands

September 06, 1963

Website

http://www.geertwilders.nl

Twitter

geertwilderspvv

Genre

Politics

edit data

Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who became an influential force on his country’s political right through the promotion of anti-Islamic and anti-immigration views. He served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1998 and as leader of the Party for Freedom from 2006.

Wilders was born to a middle-class family and raised in the southeastern Netherlands, near the German border. He attended secondary school in Venlo and took a series of law classes through Open University in the Netherlands. From 1981 to 1983 he lived in Israel and traveled throughout the Middle East. During his visits to Muslim countries in the region, Wilders began formulating the anti-Islamic views that would characterize his political career. Upon his retu Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who became an influential force on his country’s political right through the promotion of anti-Islamic and anti-immigration views. He served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1998 and as leader of the Party for Freedom from 2006.

Wilders was born to a middle-class family and raised in the southeastern Netherlands, near the German border. He attended secondary school in Venlo and took a series of law classes through Open University in the Netherlands. From 1981 to 1983 he lived in Israel and traveled throughout the Middle East. During his visits to Muslim countries in the region, Wilders began formulating the anti-Islamic views that would characterize his political career. Upon his return to the Netherlands, he worked in the health insurance industry. In 1997 he was elected to the Utrecht city council as a member of the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy . The following year Wilders was elected to the parliament.

As an MP, Wilders initially drew little notice. In the early 2000s, however, a wave of anti-Islamic feeling in the Netherlands gave him a platform for his views. In 2004 filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered after releasing the short film Submission, a collaboration with Somali-born Dutch activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali that critiqued the role of women in Muslim society. Amid the public outrage surrounding the killing, Wilders became a prominent voice on the political right, pronouncing Islam a “fascist ideology” and calling for restrictions on Muslim immigration to the Netherlands. Appealing to the supporters of populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who had been killed by an animal rights activist in 2002, Wilders quickly amassed a devoted following.

He left the VVD in 2004 partly to protest that party’s support for Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and two years later he founded the PVV. The fledgling PVV won nine seats in the 2006 parliamentary election, and Wilders continued to make public pronouncements against Islam. In 2007 he proposed that the Qurʾān be banned in the Netherlands, and the next year he produced Fitna (“Strife”), a controversial short film that interlaces passages from the Qurʾān with graphic images of Islamist terrorist attacks. Unable to find a commercial distributor for Fitna, Wilders released the film on the Internet. He then embarked on a promotional tour and made headlines in February 2009 when he was refused entry to the United Kingdom because British officials said that his visit would threaten public order (the ban was ultimately overturned). One month earlier a Dutch court had charged him with inciting hatred toward Muslims. The subsequent trial, which stretched over more than two years, concluded with Wilders being acquitted on all charges in June 2011.

In spite of those issues, Wilders and the PVV fared well at the polls. The party won four seats in the election for the European Parliament in 2009, having earned 16.9 percent of the total vote. More dramatically, the party gained 15 seats in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections. Although economic issues had dominated the campaign, the anti-immigration rhetoric of the PVV had struck a chord with voters, and the party’s success provided Wilders with an opportunity to play a major role in a minority government formed by the VVD and the Christian Democrats. Throughout 2011, Wilders became increasingly vocal in his criticism of the coalition as it rolled back government programs in an effort to reduce spending. In April 2012 Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed an austerity budget designed to adhere to the EU’s recently adopted deficit ceiling, and Wilders withdrew the PVV’s support from the coalition. In the process, the coalition government collapsed but remained in power as a caretaker administration while early elections were planned. Those elections, which took place in September 2012, resulted in the PVV’s losing nine seats in parliament, as Dutch voters turn ...more

390 posts
Geert Wilders's Blog

Geert Wilders isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

‘Out with the criminal scum’ – Geert Wilders urges deportations after Moroccans riot in Dutch cities following World Cup win

The anti-immigration politician leads the number one party in the Netherlands, according to some polls.

a340

After riots broke out across Europe following Morocco’s World Cup victory over Spain in overtime, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who leads the Party for Freedom (PVV) party, posted an illustration on Twitter depicting an airplane conducting deportations to Morocco.
“Out with the criminal

Combine Editions
Geert Wilders’s books

Average rating: 4.27 · 492 ratings · 70 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me 4.30 avg rating — 334 ratings — published 2012 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	FATWA: Hunted in America by Pamela Geller, Geert Wilders (Foreword) 4.31 avg rating — 181 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kies voor vrijheid: een eerlijk antwoord 3.59 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	We Will Not Submit: The West and the Fight Against Islam 4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ode aan de vrijheid; de liberale traditie by Daan De Neef, Jozias van Aartsen, Frits Bolkestein 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Geert Wilders…

Quotes by Geert Wilders (?)

“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.”
― Geert Wilders

2 likes

“The Koran is a fascist book which incites violence. That is why this book, just like [Adolf Hitler's] Mein Kampf, must be banned.

The book incites hatred and killing and therefore has no place in our [Dutch] legal order.”
― Geert Wilders

0 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading with Style: Winter 2012/13 Rws Completed Tasks - Winter 12/13	841	152	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2485	864	Feb 28, 2013 09:01PM

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Geert to Goodreads.