He gives zero f-cks.
The far-right and anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders has upended Dutch politics after an exit poll suggested he has won a landslide victory in the general election.
The result puts him in line to lead talks to form a new ruling coalition and possibly become the country’s prime minister in what looks to be the biggest upset in Dutch politics since the Second World War.
The exit poll published by the national broadcaster NOS said that Wilders’ Party for Freedom won 35 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, more than double the 17 he won at the last election.
The election had been called a neck-and-neck race.
“I had to pinch my arm,” he said.
“Voters said ‘we are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs’,” a jubilant Wilders said, adding he was now on a mission to end the “asylum tsunami” referring to the migration issue that came to dominate the campaign.
He also called on other parties to constructively engage in coalition talks.
The closest party to Wilders’ Party for Freedom was an alliance of the centre-left Labour Party and Green Left, which was forecast to win 26 seats.
Wilders’ election programme included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at the Dutch borders.
It also advocates the “de-Islamisation” of the Netherlands, although he has been milder about Islam during this election campaign than in the past.
“The Dutch will be No. 1 again,” Wilders said. “The people must get their nation back.”
But the politician, who has in the past been labelled a Dutch version of Donald Trump, first would have to form a coalition government before he can take the reins of power.
That will be tough as mainstream parties are reluctant to join forces with him and his Party for Freedom, but the size of his victory strengthens his hand in any negotiations.