oa De beeldspraak van Geert Wilders, een Tsunami over Nederland?

The imagery of Geert Wilders, a Tsunami over the Netherlands?

This article examines the language of the Dutch politician Geert Wilders and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom (PVV) against the yardstick of ‘extreme right’. Should we consider Wilders who is charged because of hatred against Muslims as a populist or rather an extreme-rightist? The core question of the article is addressed in a theory section on populism, right-extremism and its (metaphor) style, and an empirical section that tracks the political style and thematic choice of Wilders. The empirical case concerning language use of Geert Wilders includes a metaphor analysis using a metaphor index that is a quantitative view of the metaphorical power of a text (De Landtsheer, 2009). Also a thematic quantitative content analysis is part of the case. There were three different news formats examined: columns, opinion pieces, and the press releases of the PVV (period October 2004 to June 2010). Wilders is paying a lot of attention to the ‘old, classic’ fascist themes: nationalism, security, immigration policy and politics. His very emotional language style includes many strong metaphors that provokes unrest and that must convince people of the need for change. For content and style in the language of Wilders were found so many attributes of an extreme right-wing discourse.