Founded in 2005, the Party for Freedom has gradually grown into the fourth-largest party in Holland. It is now an unabashed political platform for Islamophobic anti-immigrant sentiment in The Netherlands. Like other right-wingers once relegated to the batshit fringes of society, Wilders is now accepted within mainstream Dutch politics. He carries considerable political sway. During the 2012 national elections in Holland, the ruling coalition actually had to get Geert Wilders' political support in order to gain power. This would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier.

XREF: Parallels the normalization of far-right parties across Europe, and the pattern of mainstream coalitions depending on them.

XREF: Parallels the normalization of far-right parties across Europe, from France's Front National to Austria's FPÖ.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 519