![]() ![]() Several parties vowed never to do that, given his extreme views, but we are starting to see cracks in those promises. For years, no other major party has been interested in teaming up with him. SCHMITZ: Well, Wilders' party was able to win 37 seats in a 150-seat parliament, so he's going to need support from at least two other major parties to secure a majority. Is Wilders going to have enough support from other parties to do that? So in the parliamentary system, the winning party often has to work with other parties to form a government. Politics in the Netherlands works differently than in the U.S. And Wilders is now in the position to try and bring in other parties to form a coalition government. But it's also an important thing to understand that, with around two dozen parties involved in this election, 25% of the vote is a pretty strong showing. So he's not really a reflection of what most Dutch voters want. ![]() But it is important to understand here that even though his party won the most votes, it was less than 25% of all votes. But, you know, his party just won the most votes in yesterday's election, and this reflects a rising concern among voters about migration. But he was generally seen as an extremist outlier in Dutch politics. SCHMITZ: Well, you know, for many years, Wilders and his Freedom Party have ridden the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in the Netherlands, and he's been a fixture in Dutch politics for a while. SHAPIRO: And does his party's strong performance suggest that that type of sentiment is common in the Netherlands today? SCHMITZ: And, Ari, he's saying here that the Dutch voters have spoken, and they want to return the Netherlands to the Dutch and stop what he called a tsunami of asylum-seekers and migrants. Here's what he said last night in his victory speech. He's also called for the Netherlands to exit the European Union. He's lived under police protection for years. He's made a call for his country to ban all mosques, and his views have prompted death threats. He's 60 years old, and he's made a name for himself as a politician for his extreme anti-Muslim views that have been fueled by the country's migrant population, many of whom come from Muslim countries. SHAPIRO: Tell us about the head of this party. NPR's Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz is here. It won the most seats in the Dutch parliament among dozens of parties, and it points to a trend of extremist populist parties gathering support throughout Europe. In the Netherlands, the party led by a far-right, anti-Muslim populist emerged as the biggest winner of elections yesterday. ![]()
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