Geert Wilders appeared more moderate. But now the PVV leader is again shouting ‘Full is full’ and that ‘left-liberal’ NPO journalism must be cut back. His formation partners remain silent. This is what normalization looks like, writes Mark Thiessen.
It appears that an amber alert was sent out in the The Hague region last week. Missing: man (60), bleached hair. Big smile, jokes, pets cats. Responds to the name ‘Geert Milders’.
Since the summer of 2023, Geert Wilders has done his best to show a mild version of himself. That wasn’t difficult. The old version was so radical that for a milder image it was enough to park some fundamental rights violations and not swear at anyone for a while. He performed the act masterfully.
Wilders has now put his alter ego aside. We saw this in the first April weekend on X. It started with a fairly radical message about restructuring the NPO, more about which later.
He then said that he could no longer cope with the influx of asylum seekers, and wrote – while negotiations about his first cabinet were still ongoing – that he would make zero concessions: ‘I’m done with it.’
Nasty instigator
A stream of messages followed about how dangerous he thinks Muslims are and a video with the text ‘Vol is vol’, a well-known racist dog whistle. The icing on the cake was that he called GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver a ‘dirty inciter’.
It was a farewell. Geert Milders has disappeared because he is no longer needed. Wilders understands that he can be on the ballot again with his own name at the next elections, and he has already started his campaign.
It has become sufficiently normalized to appeal to large groups of people: they no longer have to apologize for their voice at birthday parties, as they used to.
Geert Milders has disappeared, but for a long time to come people will feel, think and say that Wilders has changed. They keep telling themselves that to justify their vote for him, skillfully ignoring the fact that the wolf has long since put away his sheep’s clothing.
From the autocrat’s handbook
That’s how normalization works. It is a difficult process to reverse. Wilders always had something that attracted people, but for which they still had to pay a social price.
That price has now dropped to a minimum. Because millions of people voted for him. Because of his new position of power. By media that highlighted his fictional transformation as if it were real. By parties that negotiated with him and defended him.
Who, even in that first weekend of April, no longer confronted him about his racism, his intolerance and his autocratic tendencies, but – like NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt – did not get any further than saying that they would not retweet it.
Wilders’ formation partners remained silent
That Geert Milders is no longer needed became clear after this tweet about the NPO: ‘The less left-liberal NPO sound, the better.’ Many spoke up for him on social media.
After all, what’s wrong with downsizing the NPO? But that wasn’t the point. Wilders indicated that he wanted to get rid of NPO journalism on ideological grounds, because he does not agree with the journalists. That’s straight out of the autocrat’s handbook.
His formation partners were silent. They agreed with his position and apparently did not consider the motives that important. This is what normalization looks like. Even when Wilders literally says what he wants, many do not realize what he really means.
They have been cooked by pretending for months that we are dealing with a normal politician. Now the process is complete. Wilders became a politician like any other in less than a year. At least, that’s how it is seen now. The fiction has become reality. His alter ego is no longer needed.
Fooled everyone
It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to Geert Milders. A small but influential character in our political drama. He fooled everyone and won an election with it.
It reminds me of the final scene of the movie The Usual Suspects. Main character Verbal Kint had managed to hide his true identity from everyone, until – only far too late – it becomes clear how dangerous he really is: ‘The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.’