These are rather unpleasant times for Geert Wilders. In the past, political life was so wonderfully organized; you were, like him, for Trump and Putin and against Rutte and Pechtold (now Kaag).
“I like political leaders who stand up for the national interest,” Wilders was able to say at the time – in 2016 – to explain why he would vote for Trump and not for Hillary Clinton. Two years later, he posted a photo of himself behind the podium in the Russian parliament on Twitter with the caption “From Russia with Love.” Wilders also informed the home front that he “proudly” wore a Russian-Dutch friendship pin during his visit. The relatives of the MH17 victims were less proud of it and demanded an apology – of course in vain.
In preparation for that visit, Wilders had a conversation in 2017 with Alexander Shulgin, the Russian ambassador, who was recently in Buitenhof acted like an unscrupulous professional liar, including his claim that Russia was only bombing “the military infrastructure” in Ukraine. Through his conversation with Shulgin, Wilders wanted to “counterbalance the hysterical Russophobia that is prevalent here and there”.
And then Putin, too bad, invaded Ukraine, without much love. Wilders suddenly had to make such a breakneck turn that even Max Verstappen would have flinched. “The West has made a huge mistake by not ruling out NATO membership of Ukraine,” he tweeted, “but there is no excuse for a Russian military invasion.”
You hear his astonishment. That they couldn’t even ‘make up’ an excuse, which is a favorite activity in the Kremlin, besides bombing hospitals and threatening nuclear weapons.
But there was more that must have disturbed Wilders. In his eyes, his dear Dutch people started to get very sentimental with that wailing about fleeing Ukrainians. In an initial reaction, he said that he also had sympathy for the refugees and that they should be well received – but then “in the region”, that well-known region in Dystopia that many politicians have reserved for the world’s suffering.
But what made the people dismayed? “No, Geert, we should regard those Ukrainians as family, so take a few in your home too!”
He was populist enough not to show his distaste; You didn’t hear from him about that ‘region’ for a while, he had better wait until some Ukrainian testosterone bombs came to rape “our women”. He just had to make another turn, now in the opposite direction. What did he read in his favorite newspaper, The Telegraph† That Ukrainians in Dutch host families receive 135 euros living allowance per week? It rejoiced in him. Oh no!
Two minutes later he tweeted triumphantly: “Do we also think of Dutch families, Minister Kaag, people who often have less to spend per week and who can’t even pay their energy bills and who receive alms from you? When will they receive extra living money?”
Satisfied, he read his tweet back. That combination of alms and Kaag – brilliant. When would Putin finally ‘make up’ such tweets?
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of March 23, 2022