Dutch Le Pen wins big in election in Netherlands

Pretty wild:  

Anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders won a huge victory in Dutch elections, according to a near complete count of the vote early Thursday, in a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.

The result will send shockwaves through Europe, where far-right ideology is on the rise, and puts Wilders in line to lead talks to form the next governing coalition and possibly become the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.

With nearly all votes counted, Wilders’ Party for Freedom was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, two more than predicted by an exit poll when voting finished Wednesday night and more than double the 17 he won at the last election.

Is "far-right ideology" on the rise in Europe?   Not in Poland, where the far right party (with the Orwellian name "Law and Justice") lost recent elections.  Not in Spain, where the far right "Vox" party saw its support decline significantly in recent elections.  Portugal is still governed by the Socialist Party (and in the last elections, parties of the left, including hte communists, got a majority of the votes), while the far right party, Chega, got only 7% of the vote.  (A corruption scandal in the Socialist Party leadership may affect things in 2024, but at least now, the far right is not on the rise in Portugal.)  Only in Hungary and Italy are parties of the "far right" dominant, although it is true "far right" parties in France and Germany have gained electoral support in recent elections.

Geert Wilders' platform (not all of which he will be able to enact, of course, since he will need coalition partners to govern) can be seen here.  It runs the gamut from the fascist to the standard pandering to the ruling class to the normal to the eccentric; a sampling:

A complete end to all asylum for refugees 

 

Criminals to be stripped of Dutch nationality and deported

 

A ban on all Islamic schools, korans and mosques, and on headscarves in government buildings

 Lower taxes on just about everything 

 

10,000 more police, “zero tolerance for street scum” and preventive detention for people suspected of supporting terrorism

 

Covid is real - and the shortage of ICU beds is a problem to be fixed 

 

Stricter sentences for animal abuse and a National Animal Ambulance service 

 

Withdraw previous apologies for slavery. Stop providing government literature in Arabic and Turkish. 

 

Stop all art and culture subsidies. End “left wing hate of our historical heroes”. Completely stop funding public broadcaster NPO

Cut fuel taxes and raise motorway speed limits to 140km/h 

 

A complete end to all foreign aid 

 

A Nexit referendum, and until then cut EU funding 

For Dutch readers, or those knowledgeable about Dutch politics, where is Wilders's support coming from?