Who is Geert Wilders? Hard-right firebrand tones down his act

With his bouffant peroxide blond hairdo and incendiary, uncompromising language attacking Islam and Muslims, he is one of Europe’s most instantly recognisable politicians but has often cut a lonely, isolated figure.

Geert Wilders has been a stalwart of the extreme nationalist movement through thick and thin for many years, together with Marine Le Pen in France, before Europe’s populist wave finally lifted him to victory.

Wilders, a hero to the hard right, has described Islam as a retarded culture and demanded “fewer Moroccans”. He has also described Moroccans as scum, leading to a hate-speech conviction. He has been a high-profile but marginal figure on the European political landscape for two decades.

In 2009 he became well known in Britain when he was arrested at Heathrow