A man was taken into custody in Amsterdam on Sunday after threatening the life of populist politician Geert Wilders. Wilders is notorious for being one of the most persecuted politicians in the Netherlands; the police have protected him for over a decade.
Wilders went to social media to thank the Amsterdam police for their help in capturing the person who had threatened his life.
There were 1,125 death threats made against politicians in 2022, according to the latest data from the Threatened Politicians Team at The Hague. Wilders was the target of at least 50% of these threats.
Because of his outspoken criticism of Islam and its doctrines, Wilders has been the target of a steady stream of death threats. He now lives in a safe house and employs security guards around the clock. The Party for Freedom (PVV) head claims he receives hundreds of daily threats.
Extremist leaders linked to Al-Qaeda put a death warrant on Wilders’ life following the 2008 release of his short film Fitna, which argued against the Qur’anic theology and implied that it condoned terrorism, antisemitism, violence against women, and the persecution of homosexuals and non-believers.
The latest threat comes simultaneously as Wilders continues his attempts to form a cabinet following the November elections. With twenty-four percent of the vote or 37 seats, his Party for Freedom was victorious in the Dutch House of Representatives. This represented a significant rise of 20 seats compared to the last election.
The party led by Wilders has been steadily climbing the polls, even though they’ve encountered opposition from more traditional conservative leaders. The PVV received 31.1% of the vote in a recent Ipsos survey at the tail end of February, making it the most popular party in the nation. Alternatively, the second most popular choice was the coalition of the Greens and the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA), headed by Frans Timmermans, the architect of the EU Green accord, although it only received approximately 16% of the vote.
According to recent polls, the public wants a government headed by Wilders.
