Geert Wilders used to be a fringe politician. In 2006 his party won only nine seats in the Dutch parliament. But recently his popularity has surged. According to a new poll, his party would be the largest in the nation’s parliament if elections were held today.

Wilders’s Party for Freedom (pvv) would win 27 out of the 150 seats, according to recent Dutch opinion polls. The Christian Democrats, currently the largest party in parliament with 41 seats, would win only 26.

“How happy I am about this. These are of course just polls, but it is an enormous sign of confidence from the Dutch voter,” said Wilders. “As far as I am concerned, elections can be held tomorrow, then I will be the next premier.”

Such results would give Wilders the position of a power broker—and prime minister.

This would be quite a change in fortune for the outspoken Catholic. Wilders has consistently made headlines for his confrontational anti-Islamic rhetoric calling for radical mosques to be shut down, labeling the Koran “an inspiration for murder” and saying that if Mohammad were alive today, he would have him “tarred and feathered as an extremist and deported if he were in Holland.”

He is best known for his production of the 15-minute film Fitna.Fitna links six violence-promoting passages from the Koran with footage of Islamist terror attacks and quotes from radical Islamic preachers. Since releasing the video, Wilders has had to be protected by an armed guard at all times due to death threats from Muslims. He is even being prosecuted by the Dutch government for inciting hatred. He was barred from the UK last month because his presence, the home secretary’s office contended, would “pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society.”

In Britain, the policy of tolerance and even capitulation to immigrants is not working. Multiculturalism breeds extremism. Europe is beginning to wake up to this fact. In the Netherlands, even the most prominent left-wing political grouping is now strongly against tolerance and multiculturalism.

Wilders’s popularity attests to this fact. While radical Islam saps Britain’s strength, watch for Europe to make moves to crack down on immigrants.

For more information on this trend, see our article “Wanted: Savior for Europe.”