Preliminary results show Wilders’ party securing far more seats than expected in opinion polling during campaign, with nearly all votes counted
Hein de Haas, a sociologist at the University of Amsterdam, said today that the VVD’s strategy had backfired and legitimised far right candidate Geert Wilders.
Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer for German and European studies at King’s College London, said this morning that “Left and Right as broader camps each have a substantial presence and will still do so”.
I suspect the trajectory of Wilders in power would be that of Haider as a populist entirely focused on gaining power yet struggles to use it effectively once it is in his hands rather than that of a canny strategist like Giorgia Meloni.
A characteristic that Far Right populists like Haider, Farage and Wilders share is a desperate hankering after respect from the political establishment they spend their careers condemning.
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