Geert Wilders

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Wilders reading the government statement in September 2010

Geert Wilders (born September 6, 1963 in Venlo , Limburg Province ) is a Dutch politician , chairman and only member of the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) and since 1998 a member of the Second Chamber of the States General .

Life

Wilders was born in Venlo in 1963 to a Dutch father from Maasbree and an Indonesian-Dutch mother from Sukabumi (former Netherlands India ) . Wilders attended middle school ( Mavo and Havo ) of the Roman Catholic St. Thomas College in Venlo. Baptized and brought up as a Roman Catholic, he left the church at the age of majority and sees himself today as an agnostic .

In 1982 Wilders drove with a backpack from Eilat (Israel) over to the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh , where he experienced friendliness and helpfulness in the Islamic country, but also fear of “Islamic rulers”, and to Cairo. After school and military service in 1983/84, he worked for an insurance company. In addition, Wilders began to study law at the Dutch open university, Open Universiteit . He worked for a few months in an Israeli settlement, Moshav Tomer. According to his own account, Wilders is still “in love with Israel” and sees Israel as a great ally of his party.

From 1984 to 1986 he worked in the Health Insurance Council (which existed until 1999), a supervisory body subordinate to the Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport, and then until 1988 in the Social Insurance Council. In 1989 Wilders became a member of the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD). From 1990 to 1998 Wilders wrote speeches and worked on socio-economic issues for the VVD parliamentary group. He was in the Hungarian working group of the VVD, which campaigned against the accession of Slovakia and Romania to the EU.

On July 31, 1992, in Budapest , he married Krisztina Marfai, a Hungarian diplomat of Jewish origin.

After a short time as a councilor in Utrecht , Wilders was elected to the Second Chamber of the States General for the VVD in 1998 , as well as in the following election in 2002. In September 2004, he resigned from the VVD and formed the Wilders Group as a one-man faction . At the beginning of 2006 he founded the Partij voor de Vrijheid . The party ran in the Dutch parliamentary elections on November 22, 2006 and immediately received 5.9 percent and nine seats in parliament.

In 2007 he was elected “Politician of the Year” by the public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting . His choice was based on the fact that he “dominated the political discussion” and “attracts the debate”.

Since the Islamic fundamentalist Mohammed Bouyeri murdered the director and filmmaker Theo van Gogh on November 2, 2004, Wilders has been under police protection for death threats . Wilders reportedly changed his whereabouts every night and only saw his wife "every week or two." He is the only member of the Second Chamber whose residence is not published.

In February 2009, an entry ban by UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith caught the media attention of Wilders. The ban and the subsequent arrest of Wilders' in London sparked protests at home and abroad. At the invitation of a British MP, Wilders wanted to show his Islam-critical film Fitna in the British Parliament. Wilders then successfully sued in court and finally traveled to London again in October 2009.

Litigation for sedition

According to Fitna and other publications critical of Islam, numerous complaints were filed against Wilders, especially by Muslims. The public prosecutor's office initially came to the conclusion that the politician's statements did not justify criminal proceedings. However, the Amsterdam Court overturned this decision and ordered the prosecution to indict Wilders. With a view to the grounds, he saw himself as a prejudice in a “political process”.

On 20 January 2010, the process began before an Amsterdam court against Wilders on charges of " sedition ". The main proceedings opened on October 4, 2010. Because of the statement of a judge that the common prejudice was true, according to which Wilders likes to cause controversy, but then refuses to debate, the defense filed a bias motion , initially unsuccessful. When it later emerged that one of the judges had had dinner with an Arabist who was critical of Islam, whom Wilders had named as a witness, before his testimony, a new petition for bias was granted. The proceedings had to be reopened with other judges. Since even the public prosecutor's office had already demanded acquittal on all counts at this point, many political opponents viewed the motion as evidence that Wilders had no interest in a speedy end to the trial. The trial finally ended on June 23, 2011 with an acquittal on all counts. The court ruled that Wilders' statements were within the legal framework and should be seen in the context of the Dutch debate on immigration and integration .

On the evening of the Dutch local elections in March 2014, Wilders called out to his supporters in a speech in The Hague: “Do you want more or less Moroccans in this city and in the Netherlands?” When his supporters shouted: “Less, less,” Wilders proclaimed : “We will take care of that!” Wilders caused outrage. The leader of the social liberal Democrats 66 accused Wilders of sowing hatred and crossing a border. Because of the rhetoric, comparisons were made in the press and in social networks with Joseph Goebbels ' exclamation “Do you want total war?” From his Sportpalast speech . For example, the NRC Handelsblad said: "By mobilizing a room for 'less Moroccans', Wilders creates an atmosphere of deportation." 6,400 citizens filed criminal charges against Wilders for insulting and discriminating against a group of people and for inciting hatred. The main hearing began on October 31, 2016 in the defendant's absence. On December 9, 2016, the court found Geert Wilders guilty - again in the defendant's absence - of having discriminated against and insulted people of Moroccan origin . No penalty was imposed; a guilty verdict was sufficient in the opinion of the court. Wilders himself then spoke in a video message of a "political trial" (literally: " political trial ") against him and an attack on freedom of expression in the Netherlands and announced that he would appeal the judgment.

Political positions

Wilders is known for his anti-Islamic stance and his rejection of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union . He also called for more strict restrictions on immigration to the Netherlands. He is credited with progressive standpoints with regard to the rights of women and sexual minorities and, at least in the years after 2009, a very left-wing position in the field of social policy. He also wants to withdraw funds from public service broadcasters , as all journalists and programs are brainwashed .

In a study commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior, Dutch extremism researchers from the IVA (2009) classify the politics of Wilders' party as neo-right-wing extremist or “national democratic”. She is not in the tradition of raciale revolutionaries (neo-Nazis) or other right-wing extremists and expressly distances itself from them. But the PVV rejects “the foreign”, which refers to an alleged Islamization and non-Western immigrants . In this perspective, what she describes as “Christian-Jewish and humanistic culture in the Netherlands” is “her own”. According to its structure, the PVV can be assessed as authoritarian, not democratic.

Political scientists like Frank Geldmacher, Frans Becker, Florian Hartleb , Gerd Reuter or René Cuperus describe Geert Wilders as a typical representative of right-wing populism .

In reporting, Wilders is also predominantly referred to as a right-wing populist in the mass media. In the daily Le Temps , his understanding of politics is described as Islamophobic because of his Islamophobic short film Fitna .

Islam

According to his own words, Geert Wilders' “criticism of Islam” is not based on hatred of Muslims, but rather on the “inhumanity” of Islamic teachings, which he perceives in this way. He does not hate the Muslims, but rather it saddens him how much the doctrine of Islam has robbed them of their dignity. The only criticism of the Muslims is that hardly any Muslim raises their voice against the radicals who literally take the Koran's instructions to wage war against the infidels.

In a newspaper interview in February 2007, Wilders said that Muslims who wanted to live in the Netherlands would have to tear out and throw away half of the Qur'an because it said "terrible things" and that he would "chase the Prophet Mohammed out of the country as an extremist" if this one would still be alive. The Saudi Arabian government then demanded an apology from the Dutch government. Foreign Minister Ben Bot regretted Wilders' statements. His ministry pointed out that these statements did not reflect the government's position; a parliamentarian has the right to express himself freely.

On August 8, 2007, Wilders wrote a letter to de Volkskrant calling for the Koran to be banned in the Netherlands. He was referring to a speech by the Italian critic of Islam, Oriana Fallaci , who denied the existence of a "moderate Islam" and argued that Islamist violence is not the result of abuse of this religion, but is derived directly from the Koran, which is therefore associated with Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf can be compared. Wilders concluded that the Koran should be forbidden because it “calls Muslims in various suras to oppress, persecute or murder Jews, Christians, non-believers and non-believers, to beat and rape women and to create a worldwide Islamic state by force to build". As a result, the Netherlands would have to ban the "fascist book" Koran and impose a ban on immigration for Muslims. He also renewed the demand that he had already made after his election to parliament to ban the construction of further mosques in the country. The reason for his statements was an attack on the former Muslim and PvdA politician Ehsan Jami , who was injured on August 4, 2007 by three Muslim attackers.

LGBT emancipation

At Wilders' urging, the coalition agreement of the Rutte I Cabinet, which was tolerated by the PVV, contained an announcement on September 30, 2010 to promote the emancipation of LGBT people. In November 2011, Wilders voted with his PVV against these two co-governing parties when it came to a vote on same-sex marriage . A bill by the Left-Green Party banned registrars from marrying homosexual couples on religious grounds; Wilders voted with the left opposition and thus gave this bill the necessary majority.

Short film Fitna

On November 28, 2007, Wilders announced in the daily De Telegraaf that he was working on a short film about the Koran with the Arabic title Fitna (in German: discord, rebellion, visitation ), which was to be broadcast on Dutch television at the end of January 2008. But there was no Dutch station that wanted to broadcast it. Since then, Wilders limited himself to hints and promised that the film would be shown "soon on the Internet". Network Solutions , the hosting provider of Wilders, blocked its website on Holy Saturday 2008. The ministers Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Justice), Guusje ter Horst (inside) and Maxime Verhagen (outside) pointed out to Wilders the consequences that the film could have. According to a report by Telegraaf on January 16, 2008, the Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badr al-Din al-Hassoun , expressed fear in a speech in the European Parliament that the film could lead to “violence and bloodshed”, especially if in the Koran is burned or torn apart in the film.

On March 22, 2008, there was a demonstration in Amsterdam against the release of the film. According to the police, around 2,000 to 3,000 people took part in this demonstration.

The film was published on March 27, 2008 on the “ LiveLeak ” website. The following day, the film was deleted there because the portal, according to its own statements, had received death threats. However, by that time the film had already spread on the Internet and had been copied to other sites. LiveLeak discontinued Fitna on March 31, 2008. They have taken security precautions and do not want to be pressured by threats to censor legal and rule-compliant material just because some people do not like the content.

Middle East conflict

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper , Wilders described Israel as the only light of democracy in the Middle East . The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about territorial issues , but ideological ones. The Islamists rejected Israel's right to exist across the board and were not satisfied with individual areas. The European Union and the USA accused Wilder's lack of support for Israel and appeasement towards states like Iran , whose ruling regime he described as "terrible". In June 2010, he said that Jordan was Palestine and should be renamed accordingly. This would end the conflict in the Middle East and offer the Palestinians an alternative home. On January 13, 2014, Wilders took part in the memorial service for the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem and requested that a commemoration also be held in the Dutch parliament, which was rejected by the Presidium, with reference to existing guidelines for commemorating former heads of state or government .

Russia

Wilders sees Russia as an ally and criticizes the position of the European Union. He rejects the EU sanctions against Russia, which were imposed, among other things, because of the Russian annexation of Crimea . According to Wilders, it is not Russia but the EU to blame for the war in Ukraine since 2014 . In the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands , Wilders said improving relations with Russia was a priority. Wilders and other right-wing European politicians such as Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage are regular guests on Russian state television broadcaster Russia Today .

After the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and the AIVD announced that Russia was trying to influence public opinion and politics through propaganda and cyber attacks, Wilders announced a visit to Moscow. He wanted to set an example against "hysterical Russophobia". In February 2018, Wilders traveled to Russia for several days to meet with politicians. His trip and a photo of his Russian-Dutch Friendship Pin shared by Wilders on social networks were criticized by the relatives of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 . They accused him of ignoring Russia's role in the downing of the plane.

classification

Wilders can be seen as the heir of right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn , who was shot in 2002 . “He has neither Fortuyn's intellectual format nor his originality,” says historian Christoph Driessen . “Wilders combines his right-wing slogans with left-wing demands for social security, especially for the elderly. He simply asks for anything he thinks his clientele wants to hear. "

Award

  • 2013: Hiltrud Schröter Freedom Prize, Pax Europe
  • 2010, 2013 and 2015 Politician of the Year ( Politicus van het Jaar ), elected by the audience of the EenVandaag program on the Dutch channel NPO 1

literature

Web links

Commons : Geert Wilders  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Geert Wilders  - quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nederlandse Kwartierstaten. Dutch State. 'Geert Wilders' (2008) ( Memento from May 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
    Cf. Lizzy van Leeuwn "Geert Wilders heeft Indian wortels" (September 2, 2009), De Groene Amsterdammer, jrg. 133, no. 36, pp. 22-27
    Algemeen Dagblad (September 2, 2009). 'Blond earth Wilders mauled afkomst!' ( Memento from September 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Liesbeth Wytzes: Een politiekroofdier . In: Elsevier . tape 63 , no. 33 , August 18, 2007, p. 16 ff .
  3. ↑ Wilders: my message to Muslims, Weblog Geert Wilders, July 19, 2010 ( Memento of July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b http://www.parlement.com/9291000/biof/02258
  5. ^ Thierry Portes: Wilders, le provocateur néerlandais anti-islam . In: Le Figaro . March 29, 2008, p. 7 .
  6. ↑ Verliefd op Israel , De Volkskrant , 10. April 2007
  7. ↑ Hella Rottenberg: Hongarije-werkgroep VVD is Hongaarser dan Hongaars . In: de Volkskrant . August 26, 1996, p. 21 .
  8. ↑ Wilders politicus van 2007. ( Memento from January 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: NOS , December 15, 2007 (Dutch).
  9. ↑ Wilders appeals to the defense of freedom. In: Stern , January 20, 2010, accessed June 23, 2011.
  10. ↑ Gerald Traufetter: Missionary of the dark messages. In: Spiegel Online , March 27, 2008.
  11. ^ Official list of the members of the Second Chamber , as of September 2, 2010
  12. ↑ a b Andreas Ross: acquittal with announcement. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 23, 2011.
  13. ↑ Helmut Hetzel: Bizarre process. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 20, 2010, accessed June 23, 2011.
  14. ↑ Islam-enemy Wilders in court. In: Stern , January 20, 2010.
  15. ↑ G. Schwantje: Wilders trial on the dump In: the daily newspaper , October 4, 2010.
  16. ↑ The court acquits right-wing populist Wilders. In: Spiegel Online , June 23, 2011.
  17. ↑ a b Right-wing populist Wilders outraged with inciting foreigners. In: Spiegel Online , March 20, 2014.
  18. ↑ Thomas Kirchner: “Do you want fewer Moroccans?”  In: Sueddeutsche Zeitung , March 20, 2014.
  19. ↑ Sarah Maria Brech: Geert Wilders wants to kick Moroccans out.  In: Die Welt , March 20, 2014.
  20. ^ Trial against Wilders - without Wilders , tagesschau.de, October 31, 2016
  21. ↑ SPIEGEL online: Geert Wilders convicted of hate speech and discrimination ; accessed on December 9, 2016
  22. ↑ Reaction Geert Wilders to Conviction , Youtube, accessed December 9, 2016
  23. ↑ a b Le film qui attise la phobie islamiste. In: Le Temps . March 11, 2008, accessed May 20, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Geert Wilders - who did Pegida invite? In: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk . April 13, 2015, archived from the original on April 15, 2015 ; accessed on April 13, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Europe's public radio under attack , Zapp, January 10, 2018 to minute 3
  26. ↑ Polarisatie en radicalisering in Nederland ( Memento of September 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF), p. 15/16, accessed on January 9, 2011.
  27. ^ Friso Wielenga , Florian Hartleb (ed.): Populism in modern democracy. The Netherlands and Germany in comparison, Münster u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2444-9 , p. 8.
  28. ↑ Gerd Reuter: Displeasure between Maas and Marschen. Right-wing populists in Belgium and the Netherlands. In: Friso Wielenga, Florian Hartleb (ed.): Populism in modern democracy. The Netherlands and Germany in comparison, Münster u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2444-9 , p. 57.
  29. ^ Frank Geldmacher: The end of the multicultural society - right-wing populism in the value consciousness of the Dutch . In: The New Order . tape 62 , no. 1 , February 2008, p. 65-74, p. 70 ff . ( archive.org [PDF; accessed June 13, 2008]). see. Another example is the identical assessment by political scientists Becker and Cuperus: Internationale Politikanalyse, Frans Becker and René Cuperus: Country Analysis Netherlands: The Political Center Under Pressure, 2007.
  30. ↑ Weblog Geert Wilders: "Wilders: my message to Muslims" ( Memento from July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ Andrea Schneider: “Hunting out of the country with tar and feathers” In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 20, 2007.
  32. ↑ a b c “Genoeg is genoeg: verbied de Koran” In de Volkskrant , August 8, 2007 ( Dutch ).
  33. ↑ Right-wing populist calls for a ban on the Koran. In: Spiegel Online , August 8, 2007.
  34. ↑ https://www.uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet/aktuelles/archiv/2007/september/0927jami.html
  35. ↑ Rainer Haubrich : The reactions to Geert Wilders are hysterical. In: Die Welt , October 3, 2010.
  36. ↑ “The government also guarantees the emancipation of lesbian women, homosexual men, bisexuals and transsexuals and will develop concrete steps for this” (“Het kabinet Staat ook borg voor de emancipatie van lesbische vrouwen, homoseksuele mannen, biseksuelen en transgenders en zal daartoe concreet insult ontwikkelen "), Regeerakkoord VVD-CDA (Dutch, 46 pages PDF download), September 30, 2010, page 6
  37. ^ Daniel Krause: Happy Wilders. ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Citizen Times , September 6, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.citizentimes.eu
  38. ↑ Anna Reimann: Holland is losing patience with the staged scandal. ( Memento from June 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Spiegel Online , March 25, 2008.
  39. ↑ SWR.de: Dispute about 'discord' , March 26, 2008
  40. ↑ Network Solutions is blocking the right Geert? intern.de, March 24th 2008, accessed on 11 October 2012 .
  41. ↑ “Wilders verantwoordelijk bij bloedvergieten” In: de Volkskrant , January 16, 2008 ( Dutch ).
  42. ↑ Werner A. Perger: When madness prevails. In: Die Zeit , January 21, 2008.
  43. ↑ Demonstration against Wilder's “last warning about Islam” In: Spiegel Online , March 22, 2008.
  44. ↑ Wilders published koran enemy film. In: Spiegel Online , March 27, 2008.
  45. ↑ Internet site removes anti-Koran Wilders film. In: Spiegel Online , March 28, 2008.
  46. ^ Anti-Islam propaganda: Wilders film is online again. In: The time . March 31, 2008, archived from the original on April 1, 2008 ; accessed on March 31, 2008 .
  47. ↑ Benjamin Weinthal: Geert Wilders: EU is not Israel's friend. ( Memento from May 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Jerusalem Post , June 15, 2009 (English).
  48. ↑ Wilders calls for support from Israel. ( Memento from May 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Kleine Zeitung , June 15, 2009.
  49. ↑ haOlam.de - the German-Israeli news and online magazine. Retrieved October 15, 2010 .
  50. ↑ Arabnews.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010 ; Retrieved October 15, 2010 .
  51. ↑ Wen's PVV niet gehonoreerd: geen herdenking Sharon. In: de Volkskrant , January 13, 2014 ( Dutch ).
  52. ↑ European right-wing populists welcome coalition agreement in Austria . In: Die Welt , December 17, 2017.
  53. ↑ Europe's Far Right Is Embracing Putin . In: Business Insider , April 10, 2014.
  54. ↑ Vladimir Putin's fifth column in the West . In: The Globe and Mail , June 7, 2014.
  55. ↑ Valentin Naumescu: The Clash of Discourses Regarding Relations with Russia: New Fault Lines in the European Union? In: Romanian Journal of European Affairs . 17, No. 2, December 2017.
  56. ↑ Fredrik Wesslau: Putin's friends in Europe . European Council on Foreign Relations, October 19, 2016.
  57. ↑ Geert Wilders plans Russia trip 'to show we have patriots too' . In: Dutch News , November 22, 2017.
  58. ↑ a b Wilders under fire from MH17 relatives over Russia trip . In: Dutch News , February 28, 2018.
  59. ↑ MH17 relative want apology from Wilders for declaring friendship with Russia . In: NL Times , February 28, 2018.
  60. ↑ Christoph Driessen : History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land . Regensburg 2016, p. 272.
  61. ↑ Christoph Driessen : History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land . Regensburg 2016, p. 272.
  62. ↑ Netherlands: Wilders elected Politician of the Year. Spiegel online, December 15, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015 .
  63. ↑ Wilders Politicus van het Jaar 2015. eenvandaag.nl, December 14, 2015, accessed on December 15, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Wilders, Geert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch politician (PVV)
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Venlo , Limburg Province