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Dutch Anti-Islam Leader Pledges To Form Government

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Dutch politician Geert Wilders, one of Europe’s most outspoken anti-Islam leaders, has pledged to try forming a government despite tensions in coalition talks.

Wilders made the promise at the two-day Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Budapest, which ended Friday.

“Last November, the world witnessed the rising of the Dutch, the rebellion of the Dutch electorate against the ruling establishment,” he told his audience.

“My party, the Party for Freedom, more than doubled its seats in parliament and became by far the biggest party in the Netherlands. And today, we are negotiating, forming a new government. And I hope that will succeed,” Wilders stressed.

He then asked CPAC delegates to ”please allow” him “to say something to the Dutch press because they are very nervous today: They all wondered, ‘Will Wilders kill the negotiations by speaking to CPAC today?’ And I have to disappoint them. I will not do that because winning the elections and becoming the biggest party comes with a big responsibility. And a responsibility I have is to my country and my people. So to the Dutch press, I say: ‘If you are only interested in that, please go home!’” he said, prompting loud applause and cheers.

Wilders claimed to stand on the shoulders of “giants” such as “Dutch heroes,” including politician “Pim Fortuyn and [filmmaker] Theo van Gogh, both murdered for their views.”

He also referred to other “heroes,” such as then-President Ronald Reagan, who gave an inaugural speech at the first-ever CPAC meeting.

FREED FROM SOVIET DOMINATION

Wilders, 60, added that while East Europe was freed from Soviet domination and communism since then, not everything turned for the better. He cited growing migration from Islamic countries as among the dangers to Europe’s “Judeo-Christian values.”

He reminded CPAC his audience that this year marks the 20th anniversary that he lost his freedom. Wilders and his longtime Hungarian wife Krisztina have been living in safe houses and bunkers after Islamic leaders and others demanded his death.

They have no children.

Wilders also expressed “shock by the Hamas flags” and other “expressions of antisemitism” in the Netherlands and other places in Europe. He noticed “that this is not the case in Budapest.”

Wilders emphasized that he has a long relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose political ideas he shares.

Wilders accused former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and current French President Emmanuel Macron of “having squandered Europe” by admitting migrants from Islamic countries en masse. He noticed that most migrants “are young men” from, among others, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Wilders stressed that 25 percent of the Dutch electorate voted for him because Dutch people and other conservatives now say “enough.” He urged conservatives to remain committed to more sovereignty of nations that are still part of the European Union and to demand less bureaucratic power from Brussels.

MASS MIGRATION

Wilders said he expects that European parties similar to the PVV will achieve the same victory as his party in the recent parliamentary elections in the Netherlands.

He explained that voters have had enough of “the politics of open borders and mass immigration.”

Wilders arrived at CPAC while still mourning his mother, who passed away in recent days, having seen her son becoming an older man surrounded by an extended security detail.

CPAC is a gathering of radical right, conservative politicians from around the world, modeled on CPAC in the United States.

Former President Donald J. Trump addressed his “political friends” in Hungary via a video message. Orbán, who hosted the event, made clear he hopes Trump will be re-elected as president in the upcoming November elections.

CPAC did not allow critical journalists, including a Worthy News reporter, to cover the event, referring instead to its livestreams, saying reporters are “too woke.”

Other speakers were more fierce than Wilders in their migration comments. They claimed the arrival of non-Western migrants was “a deliberate plan” by governments to replace the original Western population, prompting angry reactions. Orbán has previously been condemned for saying that, “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race.”

‘NO LONGER NATIONS’

He added in recent years that, countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”. Orbán’s remarks were seen as being couched in stark, far-right terms.

The prime minister did apparently not repeat those terms publicly at CPAC, and he has recently expressed strong support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd, Orbán urged his audience to support former U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s reelection bid, saying: “Let’s make America Great again! Let’s make Europe great again!”

Orbán suggested that the multiple court cases faced by Trump on allegations such as financial wrongdoing and obstruction of justice were political trials. “If necessary, they will use government agencies against us — as my American friends say, ‘weaponizing state institutions,’” Orbán said. “This happens to us Hungarians constantly in Brussels. This is what is happening to President Trump in America, and we encourage him to fight for his own truth not only in the elections but also in the courts.”

He added: “Go Donald Trump, go European sovereigntists! Let’s saddle up, put on our armor, head to the battlefield, and begin the election battle!”

European Union elections in June and U.S. presidential elections in November, Orbán said, could launch a new “era of sovereignty” modeled on Hungary, which he claimed was a “conservative island.”