LONDON — If Gert Wilders were some underemployed bigot ranting in a pub, you'd just move away from him. He calls the Islamic veil a "head rag" and says it should be taxed for "polluting" the Dutch landscape. He condemns Islam as "the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed" and the Quran as "the Mein Kampf of a religion that seeks to eliminate others." Just another nut case with too much time on his hands.
But Wilders is no ordinary nutcase. He is a member of Parliament and the leader of the Freedom Party, which came third in last June's election. It was a pretty impressive third, with 24 of Parliament's 150 seats, so the other parties cannot ignore him. They can't ignore him even if he goes to jail, which is quite possible: His trial on five charges of inciting hatred and discrimination began in Amsterdam last Monday.
He'd probably quite like to be sent to jail for a little while, since that would further undermine the traditional Dutch political order and make Wilders a martyr for many people. (The penalties for inciting hatred are up to one year in prison or a 7,600 euro fine.) And he still wouldn't lose his parliamentary seat or the leadership of his party: The other party leaders would just have negotiate with him in the prison visiting room.