Geert Wilders is the leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) in the Netherlands. His party is now #1 in the polls, and there is an election coming up. Despite the fact that he can’t safely venture into the streets without being surrounded by armed bodyguards, Mr. Wilders plans to campaign vigorously.

Below are excerpt from today’s Reuters report:

INTERVIEW — Anti-Islam politician Wilders aims to “paralyse” Dutch govt Jan 23 (Reuters) – Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders is counting on concern over Paris militant attacks to help him “paralyse” the centre-right coalition government and stake a claim to greater national influence. Accused by critics of inflaming tensions in a land that has long welcomed workers from Morocco and Turkey, Wilders goes into local elections on March 18 with his Freedom Party commanding about 25 percent support — far more than any other and enough, possibly, to give him a blocking vote in the Upper House. Wilders, who has lived under 24-hour security since the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh a decade ago by an Islamist militant, says he will make forays onto the street to campaign. But he will appear in public only briefly surrounded by bodyguards.

His message to Dutch electors, couched with warnings of “Islamisation” of Europe, was direct. “Vote, vote today. You can perhaps send the government home,” Wilders said, in an interview with Reuters. “If not, you can paralyse the government. So those are very important elections.” However, while Wilders may be able to block legislation in the Upper House, he would be hard pressed to find coalition partners to form any national government. At best he might increase his power to press anti-immigrant policies. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s cabinet nearly collapsed in December after losing a vote in the Upper House, where he lacks a majority. “Most people expect that he (Wilders) will gain some seats, and perhaps even a considerable number of seats,” Henk te Velde, a political historian at Leiden University.