Geert Wilders

The ‘Patriotic Spring’ promised by the Dutch anti-immigrant firebrand, Geert Wilders, has failed to flower, as the Netherlands handed election victory to the party of sitting Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He will now try to form a ruling coalition. European leaders applauded the result, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called it ‘a good…

He’s a bleached-blond, anti-Islam, far-right politician who’s riding a populist wave… not Donald Trump, this is Geert Wilders, poised to make sweeping gains in next week’s Dutch elections.

The Dutch general election next month shows all the signs of following a now familiar pattern: a populist movement rising up to upset the established political order. The far-right Freedom Party is on course to win the most seats and is appealing to an electorate ready to hear anti-immigration and eurosceptic rhetoric. Today its leader…