Wilders, who has been in national politics for 25 years, hasn’t succeeded by promising to clamp down on the country’s socially liberal ways – but it may be that these ways have blinded some on the outside to the undercurrent of anti-immigration feeling that’s existed for some time.
“This isn’t new,” says Dr Damhuis. The potential for a far-Right victory like this has been there a while, he believes. It has now been realised because of a space that opened in the political landscape. Rutte’s government collapsed in July amid a row over asylum policies among the coalition parties. With the issue of immigration to the fore, and dissatisfaction with government at a high, the stage was set for a far-Right populist surge.
“This was a political opportunity for people like [Wilders] to say, ‘enough is enough, we should put the Dutch first,” says Dr Damhuis. “For a lot of Dutch voters, it’s intuitive that there should be some control in terms of who we accept.”
According to the Financial Times, Wilders even appealed to the Dutch youth, winning the most votes of any party in the 18-35 age group. But at the time of going to press, according to Dr Damhius, there was little reliable socio-economic data on the election available. However, he does point to statistics that show Wilders’s PVV party came first among high school students which “signals something about the younger generations”. Certainly, he says, PVV “did not underperform among young voters”.
As to why that is, at this point it’s mere speculation, but the Netherlands’s housing crisis – the average cost of a home costs more than 10 times the modal income – and the attendant student housing crisis has seen the Dutch parliament ask the country’s universities to stop recruiting international students.
“There’s a huge shortfall of housing,” says Coates. “The Right have connected it to immigration and asylum.”
They have, as elsewhere, also made their opposition to climate change measures part of their offering.
So is the country’s turn towards the far-Right likely to be a long-term one? “Much will depend on if [Wilders] is going to deliver,” says Dr Damhuis.
Given that his success follows that of other far-Right figures in Europe, moderates would be wrong to underestimate his chances of longevity – even in a country as liberal as the Netherlands.