Geert Wilders Is No Right-Wing Populist

Dutch politician Geert Wilders may be many things, but he is not the right-wing populist he is accused of being. What the debate over his film "Fitna" reveals most clearly is the West's cowardice toward Islam.

There's a key for every lock, just as there's a perfectly fitting label for everyone who refuses to fit in. At the moment, the term "right-wing populist" is hot. Everyone and his brother is calling Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders by that name at the moment, but hardly any commentators or reporters have taken the time to explain what a "right-wing populist" actually is. And what distinguishes it from other political standpoints like, for instance, "left-wing populists."

Geert Wilders may be many things -- he is self-confident to the point of vanity and stubborn to the point of sacrificing himself. But he's not a right-wing populist.

For one thing, he's a radical liberal. For another, what he's doing at the moment is extremely unpopular. Six years ago, Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered by an animal rights fanatic, was also called a "right-wing populist." He was indeed very popular -- not because he was "right-wing" but because he insisted on drawing attention to things that the traditional elites of Dutch society had steadfastly ignored.

And here is the key note so indescribebly overseen by the left (and the right). You do not have to be a extreme rightist (which of course is not far away from a extreme left winger) to be a critic to immigration policies. The extreme left is every bit as protectionistic as the extreme right- they just call it by different names. On the one hand: We don't let thhem in to our societys by not letting them get over the borders, and on the other hand- We don't let them to get in to our societys by closing them out in the name of multiculturalism/integration...

Wilders is indeed a radical liberal!

Der Spiegel