Wilders to field candidates in Dutch municipal elections

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Geert Wilders, the Netherlands’ anti-Islam firebrand, says his Party for Freedom wants to field candidates in dozens of municipalities across the country in local elections next year.

Wilders’ party, with its radical anti-immigration platform, finished second in national elections last month, winning 20 of the 150 seats in Parliament’s lower house.

Wilders’ party, known by its Dutch acronym PVV, is currently represented in only two municipal councils. On Wednesday he appealed for supporters to become candidates at local elections.

Wilders says “the advance of the PVV continues. We are now the Netherlands’ second party and locally there is also a great demand for a strong PVV.”

Despite its success at the national elections, mainstream parties shut the PVV out of talks to form the next ruling coalition.