Geert Wilders, the right-wing firebrand and founding leader of the anti mass-migration Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), has thrown his weight behind Donald Trump’s policy proposal to temporarily halt Muslim immigration into America.
Mr. Wilders made similar comments this November, demanding Europe close its borders to Muslims, which increased his popularity in the Netherlands.
“I hope [Donald Trump] will be the next US President. Good for America, good for Europe. We need brave leaders”, he tweeted on the 7th of December, the day Trump announced the policy.
He also re-Tweeted Trump’s announcement; “Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!”
Mr. Wilders is a renowned campaigner against radical Islam across Europe and much of the world. He has spoken at PEGIDA rallies in Germany, at the ‘Draw Mohammed’ competition which was attacked by Jihadists in the US, and most recently in Australia.
He tweeted out the news that Mr. Trum’s new policy has also seen him surge in the poll, and explained to the American reader: “Also in The Netherlands, 100,000 Muslims – 11% – say it’s acceptable to use violence.”
Mr. Wilders has repeatedly called for similar policies to Mr. Trump. In September he described the migrant crisis as an “Islamic invasion” that threatened Europe’s “prosperity, security, and identity”. Later in November, he demanded Europe close it’s borders to Muslims. He has also warned that mass immigration of Muslims leaves Europe vulnerable to attack from Islamists.
He told AFP at the time: “I’m not asking for anything strange, I am asking that our government close its doors as Hungary did … that we close our borders to those we consider to be migrants, not refugees.”
His stance made him incredibly popular in his native Netherlands. Polls revealed that if an election was held just after the comments were made in November, his young PVV party would win 38 seats in the 150-seat Lower House, its largest-ever showing in a predictive survey.