Geert Wilders argues that Islamic immigration has transformed Western Europe into environments resembling Arab nations, creating an existential threat to freedom incompatible with independent judiciaries and civil liberties. Citing cases like Theo van Gogh's murder and polls showing 60% of Dutch Muslims prioritize Sharia over secular law, he warns of a slide toward a "second Iran." After collapsing the Dutch government due to coalition failures on immigration, Wilders asserts that reversing this trend requires de-Islamizing society, noting that worsening conditions are necessary before improvement, though he remains optimistic about returning to politics. [Automatically generated summary]
So to be here at CPAC in a country that has proper borders, unlike your country, I suppose it's satisfying in some sense, but probably also a little depressing in a way.
It is, you know, if you go to my part of Europe, Western Europe, not only in Holland, but if you go to Brussels or Berlin or London or Paris, you feel yourself like in an Arab nation, you know, it's unrecognizable.
People feel foreigners in their own neighborhood, in our own city, in our own village, indeed, because of the influx of also all the asylum seekers from the Islamic world.
And it's not just something that we are unhappy about, it's an existential threat, you know.
In the economy, you can lower the taxes or raise them and you can play with it.
But Islam is an existential problem because if we won't stop it, it will end our freedom.
You know, I'm convinced that Islam and freedom are incompatible.
Go to look at any nation today in the world where Islam is already dominant and strong.
You see a total lack of freedom.
You see a lack of independent judiciary.
You see no civil society.
You see everything is lacking.
And that at the end of it, we are becoming like a second Iran today.
And that is something that the people do not want.
And that Hungary indeed does not have.
A young girl can here go with her girlfriends, with her friends on the street to a party without being arrested.
Well, you know, it's two minutes to 12, maybe even two minutes over 12.
But I'm a politician, so by nature, I am, and I have to be positive.
And you see also in Europe that parties like mine and many countries are getting stronger.
are maybe not leading everywhere, but are getting stronger.
And the people are fed up.
Unfortunately, it has to get worse because before it gets better.
But we cannot afford to wait much longer, you know, because it's very difficult to reverse it.
And we should reverse it.
We should de-Islamize our society.
If you don't adhere to our values, if you want Sharia law instead of our constitution, if you believe, as many Dutch Muslims do, more than 60% believed that the rules from the Islamic Sharia law, that's what they said in a poll from a leftist university who polled it, is more important than the secular laws made by parliament, then there is no room for you in our societies.
And we have to be tough on it.
If we don't, at the end of the day, and that will be very soon, we will lose our freedom and we have nothing left.
Well, I mentioned to you right before we started that my mom's side of the family is Dutch and we still have family members there and they are Jewish and they're huge supporters of yours and praying that you will return to politics.
So my last question is about your political future.
So if I understand it correctly, you collapsed the government because basically you couldn't get enough parties to do what you wanted as it related to this, correct?
And the most important thing that we went to the biggest party, we gained the most of the seats, was to beat immigration and Islamic immigration and asylum seekers.
And they didn't deliver.
So I could not go back to my voters and say we stay because we really like our jobs, but they don't deliver.
That's why, unfortunately, I didn't want to, but I had to stop the government.