Surrounded by colonial history, Wilders campaigns against migration before EU vote

Even though Wilders dropped his idea for a Brexit-style EU membership referendum long ago, he vowed “to change the EU from within,” including bringing the “strictest migration policy the Netherlands has ever seen” to the bloc-wide level.

“Other parties like the Freedom Party are growing. From France to Belgium, Austria to Italy. If you can put that together and steer this EU oil tanker onto a different course, you’d have much more influence inside than out,” Wilders said at his campaign stop.

The Freedom Party currently has no seats in the European Parliament, but recent polls suggest that the party — of which Wilders is the sole member — could claim nine out of 31 Dutch seats.

The Wilders coalition could take shape before the end of the month — and once formed it will push for big concessions from the EU’s 26 other countries: an opt-out on migration agreements; looser rules on nitrogen emissions; and a €1.6 billion cut in the Dutch contribution to the EU budget.

Asked whether the next Dutch government will be all take, and no give, Stöteler told POLITICO: “We’re giving plenty. We have the port of Rotterdam, we have our agriculture. You can’t pretend we’re only asking.”

Multiculture all around

In the Netherlands, nothing is ever far away — including the multicultural results of the migration that Wilders has campaigned against. As he and Stöteler were speaking, customers walked in and out of a nearby Surinamese supermarket and a halal butcher’s shop. Some of them, unable to see Wilders in the scrum of cameras, asked reporters what was going on.