Geert Wilders is without doubt one of the most controversial politicians in Dutch politics; but, his celebration, the PVV, turned the most important in 2023. How does Wilders navigate the world of digital politics?
Who’s Geert Wilders?
Geert Wilders is without doubt one of the most controversial politicians in present Dutch politics. The 61-year-old far-right politician’s typically radical statements and plans have polarised the nation. His views on Islam and immigration, to call just a few, have led to an abundance of loss of life threats, inflicting him to dwell a life underneath fixed safety by safety. Wilders shouldn’t be new to politics. He joined the Home of Representatives again in 1998 as a member of VVD, the Folks’s Celebration for Freedom and Democracy. Six years later, he left VVD and based a brand new celebration not lengthy after. He known as it “Partij voor de Vrijheid” (PVV), which interprets to “Celebration for Freedom” (Tweede Kamer, n.d.).
Though Wilders already required everlasting safety after his departure from the VVD in 2004, the threats towards him would intensify over time. One key second on this improvement was the discharge of his quick movie “Fitna” in 2008, through which he aimed to “present” the hazards of Islam (Ornstein, 2024). At first of the movie, for instance, a verse from the Quran is proven, adopted by footage of the September 11 assaults in New York. Moreover, very graphic movies and pictures of corpses are proven (atcoalition, 2009). One other incident occurred a few years later, in 2014, throughout his notorious speech, the place he requested his supporters the next query: “Would you like, on this metropolis and within the Netherlands, kind of Moroccans?” This query was adopted by the gang shouting “Much less, much less, much less…” These are simply two examples of Wilders’ Islamophobic, nativist, and populist concepts.
On November 22 2023, tens of millions of individuals within the Netherlands went to the polling stations to forged their votes for the Home of Representatives. After tallying the votes, the far-right PVV received the elections. The celebration obtained 37 out of 150 seats within the Home of Representatives, a rise of 117,6% in comparison with their 17 seats in 2021 (NOS, 2023). This marks the primary time a far-right celebration has ever grow to be the most important within the Dutch Home of Representatives. Regardless of the controversy surrounding Wilders, he clearly succeeded, as evidenced by the PVV changing into the most important political celebration within the Netherlands.
Methodology
When discussing politics, you will need to be aware {that a} politician’s message is not only their literal communication and discourse primarily based solely on the phrases that they utter. Though the content material performs a considerable function in analysing politics, we also needs to increase our view and have a look at the shape and presentation as properly. As Lempert and Silverstein (2016, p. 2) argue, Message refers extra to the creation of a sure political persona or id. Politicians obtain this by strategically addressing sure points of their agenda whereas avoiding others and even attributing them to their opponents. Thus, with out explicitly stating it, a particular persona is created for the politician. Moreover, Lempert and Silverstein (2016, p. 26) additional thicken this definition by stating that “Message (…) is multimodal within the sense that it might incorporate all kinds of fabric, from clothes and staging to gesture and speech.” Message on this sense, even essentially the most banal, routine practices might be thought of as contributing to a politician’s Message. Think about Wilders’ haircut, for instance. It might sound insignificant, however are we not in a position to immediately recognise him due to it?
Politics these days can’t ignore the digital world. Social media platforms like X and Instagram provide politicians extra alternatives to succeed in individuals than they’d have had by relying solely on conventional media. I take advantage of the phrase “alternatives” right here, as a result of you will need to be aware that on-line visibility isn’t assured and shouldn’t be taken without any consideration. We live in an consideration financial system the place individuals, companies, and organisations should battle for our consideration, which has been commodified. There may be a lot content material printed on-line day by day, that getting (and, maybe extra importantly, conserving) somebody’s consideration is a tough job.
Moreover, there’s at all times a menace of invisibility on social media platforms. Based on Bucher (2012, p. 1171), there’s “the opportunity of continually disappearing, of not being thought of vital sufficient.” To navigate the eye financial system and make themselves seen, politicians must be media literate and have algorithmic information. Visibility shouldn’t be earned randomly; slightly, it’s a reward for interplay, inscribed within the algorithmic logic of platforms (Bucher, 2012, p. 1174). Right use of affordances is intently related to this. Affordances are “what materials artifacts reminiscent of media applied sciences enable individuals to do” (Bucher & Helmond, 2018, p. 235). A distinction might be made between low-level and high-level affordances. The previous are particular buttons, sliders, and options of a platform, whereas the latter are broader dynamics enabled by know-how (Bucher & Helmond, 2018, pp. 239-240). Within the case of Geert Wilders, I’ll focus predominantly on his use of X’s affordances, such because the repost button.
Carefully related to digitalisation is the rise of metapolitics 2.0. The unique metapolitics, related to the New Proper motion, is an ideological venture with the aim of normalising or hegemonising far-right, traditionalist concepts (Maly, 2019). Digitalisation and internet 2.0 know-how have modified the way in which this ideological venture is realised, thus giving start to what Maly (2023, p. 81) calls “metapolitics 2.0.” Within the case of metapolitics 2.0, new digital practices are employed to disseminate these far-right concepts, and media literacy and algorithmic information are of nice significance. That’s as a result of social media are simply as vital as (if no more vital than) conventional mainstream media (Maly, 2023, p. 84).
Populism usually has to do with a distinction between the ‘widespread individuals’ and ‘the elite’. A populist, then, claims to articulate the voice of the individuals with an anti-elite tone. Within the post-digital age, nonetheless, we have to look past simply journalists, politicians, and lecturers. As Maly (2022, p. 43) argues: “the affordances of digital media and the net 2.0 push us towards understanding populism as a digitally mediated and chronotopic communicative relation between completely different human and algorithmic actors.” That is also referred to as algorithmic populism. It’s important to maintain digital applied sciences in thoughts when finding out populism, and to acknowledge that algorithmic populism is known inside a particular time-space context.
To research how Wilders navigates the area of digital politics, I adopted numerous of his accounts on social media for about 4 months on the finish of 2024. I’ll use a discourse evaluation method to look at the information. Jones et al. (2015, p. 4) present a helpful framework by stating that discourse analysts often take note of 4 completely different dimensions: textual content, context, motion and interplay, and energy and beliefs. Within the following evaluation part, these dimensions might be used to assist information the evaluation.
Wilders’ Algorithmic Populism
The next part will analyze Wilders’ presence on Twitter in relation to populism as a “digitally mediated and chronotopic communicative relation between completely different human and algorithmic actors” (Maly, 2022, p. 43). To know populism on this definition, Maly additional states that 5 elements are of key significance:
- an actor who claims to talk within the identify of the individuals,
- who has some information of the wants of the individuals,
- who will get labelled as a populist by different actors,
- makes use of digital media of their populist practices,
- and generates some type of uptake.
Determine 1 exhibits a submit Wilders made on X. In it, he offers a abstract of some European governments’ current selections concerning immigration and asylum insurance policies. Maybe to nobody’s shock, these examples are all in step with his views as properly. He then proceeds to state that “The voice of the individuals is heard.” That sentence is a transparent signifier of a populist framework. In spite of everything, a populist claims to articulate the voice of the individuals. By mentioning a number of different governments that made selections much like Wilders’ plans, he expands that voice internationally. The Dutch ‘voice’ (which on this case disregards greater than half of the inhabitants, as solely round 2.5 million individuals voted for PVV) shouldn’t be the one one that desires stricter immigration insurance policies, as that is additionally occurring in different international locations,reminiscent of Italy and Sweden. Utilizing these examples may very properly assist strengthen his message and make it extra convincing to the individuals who see the submit.
Listening to uptake when analyzing modern populism is simply as vital as inspecting the enter (Maly, 2022, p. 54). How is the content material obtained, and what do the numbers say? Inspecting the numbers in Determine 1 reveals that Wilders’ posts are fairly well-liked. This explicit submit has been seen over 600,000 occasions as of January 2025, and it has garnered an unlimited variety of likes, retweets, and feedback. In relation to producing uptake, Wilders is not any stranger to that. His X account has over 1.5 million followers, and most of his posts simply surpass 100k views. It’s protected to say that Wilders has created a robust presence on social media, together with his posts standing out among the many huge quantity of content material posted day by day on X.
Feedback are an vital type of engagement, as they supply extra context than a easy like or repost. Determine 2 exhibits a set of supportive feedback underneath certainly one of Wilders’ posts, with individuals expressing their love for him. Wilders makes good use of the affordances of X, the repost button particularly, by reposting these feedback to his feed. Due to this, they’ll seem as a separate submit on individuals’s feeds, slightly than solely being seen when viewing the feedback of the precise submit they had been commented underneath. By selectively sharing this optimistic uptake, Wilders enforces the concept that the general public loves him.
Plainly Geert Wilders additionally embraces the populist label. As proven in Determine 3, Wilders reposts a submit from Breitbart London, which calls him “Dutch Populist Chief Geert Wilders”. As talked about above, being labeled as populist by different actors, reminiscent of journalists or lecturers, is a key think about understanding algorithmic populism.
Contemplating every part offered above, it’s plain that Wilders is aware of tips on how to successfully navigate social media platforms and digital media to attain his political targets. The truth that politics have modified because of digitalization and internet 2.0 applied sciences is one thing Wilders is aware of as properly. In spite of everything, he states: “Lengthy dwell X! Up to now, my posts right here from the previous 12 months have been seen greater than half a billion occasions, no conventional media can compete with that!” (My translation).This connects properly to what Maly (2023, p 84) mentioned about social media taking part in an vital function in modern politics.
Wilders’ Message Politics
Message, as I described earlier, is multimodal. It seems to be at extra than simply literal communication. Different issues, reminiscent of clothes, speech, and gestures, all assist form a politician’s Message. Instagram is an app with an emphasis on visible content material, so I took a screenshot of a part of Wilders’ feed to research it (Determine 5).
What we see right here is that, regardless of being a politician, Wilders posts many issues which might be seemingly unrelated to politics (however as I mentioned, even these issues can contribute to a politician’s Message). By sharing footage of his holidays, occasional drinks, and even an image from his youth, this account typically seems to be one made by an everyday citizen who shouldn’t be in politics. In different phrases, Wilders is rather like the widespread individuals. In fact, we can’t ignore the cat footage. Wilders seems to be a pleasant, empathetic cat lover, though these phrases will not be the very first thing that involves thoughts when one hears his identify. This persona is additional strengthened by the truth that he has an X account particularly for his cats.
Utilizing ethnopoetics, — as described by Blommaert (2018) — to research the way in which Wilders buildings a few of his discourse reveals some fascinating insights as properly. Wilders makes use of triplets on a number of events in his discourse. Within the submit in Determine 6, he makes use of “Onze, Onze, Ons” thrice in the beginning of the phrase teams. The triple repetition of variations of the phrase “our” locations further emphasis on his nationalistic views. “Our” nation, the Netherlands, is highlighted. Because of the good poetic construction of his discourse, the message he conveys is affectively interesting and subsequently extra convincing (Blommaert, 2018, p. 4).
It is very important be aware that within the digital age, political discourse and messages are usually not produced solely by politicians (Blommaert, 2019, p. 7; Maly, 2022, p. 44). Anybody on-line can take a bit of discourse, whether or not that’s a picture, textual content, or video, and repost or edit it. This course of is named entextualisation. As Blommaert (2019, p. 7) defines it:
“Entextualization refers back to the course of by way of which discourses are successively or concurrently decontextualized and metadiscursively recontextualized, in order that they grow to be a brand new discourse related to a brand new context and accompanied by a selected metadiscourse which offers a type of ‘most well-liked studying’ for the discourse.”
Throughout a search on TikTok, I got here throughout an fascinating video that completely visualises these practices. The account that posted the video is known as @pvvnederland, however it’s not the official PVV account. On this account, the 2 major content material sorts are memes and statistics. The video I wish to spotlight (Determine 7) options three edited pictures of quotes or statements from different political events. Translated:
“Nobody overboard. Besides our rules”
“No concept which celebration has pushed this nation into the abyss for the previous 13 years, however we are going to remedy it once more.”
“Handing out flyers is triggering for victims of papercuts.”
The photographs are supposed to ridicule these events, which is supported by the caption of the video being “You’ll be able to’t take these 3 events significantly, are you able to? Vote PVV as we speak.” Right here we see the unique designs of different events’ marketing campaign posters being entextualised right into a meme meant to make enjoyable of them. That is what Lempert and Silverstein (2016, p. 26) consult with as detrimental messaging: “the way you wish to model your opponent.” On this case, individuals apart from the politician are campaigning for PVV by portray others in a detrimental gentle. This exhibits how digital media have made it simpler for a celebration’s concepts to unfold. Moreover, these memes are emblematic of metapolitics 2.0, as the sort of metapolitics depends closely on digital practices,reminiscent of memes and trolling (Maly, 2023, p. 86).
Far-right Thrives on the Web
Geert Wilders is a chief instance of how politicians make the most of digital platforms to convey their message, interact with their viewers, and form their political persona. Along with his algorithmic information and digital literacy, he makes use of a number of platforms and their affordances to share his Message and concepts. His algorithmic populism and Message politics present how digital media are essential in modern politics.
References
atcoalition. (2009, March 15). Fitna [Video]. Dailymotion.
Blommaert, J. (2018). Trump’s Tweetopoetics. (Tilburg Papers in Tradition Research; No. 203).
Blommaert, J. (2019). Political discourse in post-digital societies.
Bucher, T. (2012). Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook. New media & society, 14(7), 1164-1180.
Bucher, T., & Helmond, A. (2018). The affordances of social media platforms. In J. Burgess, A. Marwick, & T. Poell (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media (pp. 233-253). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Jones, R. H., Chik, A., & Hafner, C. A. (2015). Discourse analysis and digital practices. In R. H. Jones, A. Chik, & C. A. Hafner (Eds.), Discourse and digital practices: Doing discourse evaluation within the digital age, 1-17. Routledge.
Lempert, M., & Silverstein, M. (2012). Creatures of politics: Media, message, and the American presidency. Indiana College Press.
Maly, I. (2019, March 15). White terrorism, white genocide and metapolitics 2.0. Diggit Journal.
Maly, I. (2022). Populism as a Mediatized Communicative Relation: The Birth of Algorithmic Populism. In C.W. Chun (Ed.). Utilized Linguistics and Politics (pp. 33–58). London: Bloomsbury Tutorial.
Maly, I. (2023). Metapolitics, Algorithms and Violence: New Right Activism and Terrorism in the Attention Economy. Taylor & Francis.
NOS. (2023). Uitslagen Tweede Kamer 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
Ornstein, L. (2024, October 7). Wat is de PVV? NPO Kennis.
PVV. [@pvvnederland]. (2023, November 22). Deze 3 partijen kun je toch niet serieus nemen. Stem vandaag PVV. #fy #fyp #geertwilders #verkiezingen #pvv #politiek #wilders #partijvoordevrijheid.
Tweede Kamer. (n.d.). Geert Wilders. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
Wilders, G. [@geertwilders]. (n.d.). Posts [Instagram profile]. Instagram.
Wilders, G. [@geertwilderspvv]. (n.d.). Posts [X profile]. X.
