RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Populous movements had a good 2016 - first the Brexit vote, then Donald Trump's victory. 2017 could bring more of the same, there will be big elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany. This week on the show, we're going to hear from three leaders of European populist movements. And we begin today with an anti-immigrant politician who is leading the polls in the Netherlands. Lauren Frayer traveled to The Hague to meet the man some call the Dutch Donald Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Dutch).
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: This was the scene at a political rally nearly three years ago, when Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament and head of the Freedom Party, asked supporters.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GEERT WILDERS: (Speaking Dutch).
FRAYER: "In the Netherlands, do you want more or fewer Moroccans?"
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in Dutch).
FRAYER: "Fewer," the crowd chants.
LT COL MOSTAFA HILALI: Well, for me, I saw that and it really hit me emotionally.
FRAYER: Mostafa Hilali is a lieutenant colonel in the Dutch army, and happens to be of Moroccan descent. He's one of more than 5,000 people who sued Wilders and won. The politician was convicted late last year of inciting discrimination against Moroccans, but he got no punishment. In fact, Geert Wilders surged in the polls.
HILALI: This reputation, this image that we always have of ourself as a very tolerant and moderate and acceptant country is skin-deep. His rise shows that there are a lot of people out there who actually have very different ideas about how the Netherlands should be.
FRAYER: Over tea at their home, Hilali and his native Dutch wife, Linda Van Noord, recount how they wanted to give their baby a Moroccan name, but worried the boy would face a lifetime of discrimination. Van Noord was also a plaintiff in the Wilders lawsuit, but she says she understands why many other Dutch people support him.
LINDA VAN NOORD: Because the area where my grandparents lived their whole life, it changed radically. You know, suddenly there's this huge mosque now right in front of your home. They're not racist. They're coping with what, to them, is an extreme change.
FRAYER: The Netherlands went from virtually zero to about 10 percent immigrant in just a few decades. Geert Wilders promises to reverse that, and return Netherlands to its white Christian roots. But what makes him different from other far-right politicians is that he's for gay rights, legal drugs, women's lib. What appeals to many voters here is that Wilders says he wants to protect those liberal Dutch values from an enemy that he says is Islam.
WILDERS: A lot of people from Islamic backgrounds don't care a bit about our values, our culture, our identity, our freedom or the rights of women not to be harassed.
FRAYER: Wilders refuses most interviews, he prefers to tweet instead, but I managed to catch him in the hallway of the Dutch Parliament. It was just after the ISIS attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, and Wilders was irate. He just tweeted a photoshopped picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel with blood on her hands.
WILDERS: We should hold Mrs. Merkel accountable. We should hold the Dutch prime minister accountable. They are all of the same bunch - irresponsible, cowardly, and we have to change our societies and to fight back and defend our values and our people. And that's the only way that we can save our liberty.
FRAYER: He wants to ban the Quran, shut down mosques and pull Holland out of the European Union. He's an isolationist who wants to cut all foreign aid. And just like the Arab Spring a few years ago, Wilders says a wave of populist anger is now sweeping the West, and he's proud to be one of its leaders.
WILDERS: I'm a patriot. I believe there is a patriotic spring going on in the world today in the western world. Donald Trump did the job in America, and I hope that here in Europe we will see a patriotic spring both in Holland, but also in Germany, in France, in many other countries where parties like mine are getting stronger everyday.
FRAYER: His anti-Muslim stance has earned him death threats. When I interviewed him, I had to squeeze my microphone between beefy bodyguards. Such security became common for Dutch critics of Islam 12 years ago after a local filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in the street by a Muslim extremist. Van Gogh had made a movie criticizing Islam. Many Dutch who might not agree with Wilders still vehemently support his freedom of speech, and think the discrimination case against him was ridiculous. One of them is Gijs van de Westelaken, a colleague of the late filmmaker van Gogh.
GIJS VAN DE WESTELAKEN: I think the trial against him was completely wrong, they shouldn't have done this. If anybody has a right of free speech, it's him. On the other hand, yes, well, he's a politician, he exaggerates.
FRAYER: Wilders was nevertheless named politician of the year for 2016. He's poised to win the most votes in the Dutch election in March. The rival parties are not likely to back him to be prime minister. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in The Hague.