Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Nov 30, 2023 24 tweets 11 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Dutch politician and leader of the Party of Freedom (PVV), Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv).

He's best-known for his populist, anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric, and for his warm and close relations to the Kremlin.

1/21 Image
After graduating from school, Geert dreamed of traveling around the world. He went to Israel and volunteered in an agricultural community known as moshav in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. After saving some money, he also traveled extensively...

2/21 Image
...to the neighboring Arab countries, calling them "magnificent countries" but also "chaotic". After returning home from Israel, he claimed to be having a "special feeling of solidarity" towards the country. Since then, he's visited Israel over 40 times.

3/21
Image
Image
After working in the health insurance industry for a while, Geert got interested in politics. He started writing speeches for the Netherlands' People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), after which he became parliamentary assistant to the party leader Frits Bolkestein.

4/21
Image
Image
Bolkestein was the first Dutch politician to talk about the consequences of mass immigration of Muslims for Dutch society, which Geert seemed to admire greatly. Wilders copied Bolkestein's confrontational speaking style and his anti-immigration rhetoric.

5/21 Image
After becoming VVD's public spokesman in 2002, he became well-known for his criticism of Islamic extremism. He also resisted Turkey's entry to EU. Due to this, he was expelled from the VVD parliamentary party, only to form his own, Party for Freedom or PVV for short.

6/21
Image
Image
In 2005, Wilders published his political manifesto, suggesting changes like a ban on Islamic headwear in public, closing of all doors for asylum seekers, stop on enlargement of EU, ban on Islamic schools, and deportation of criminals with dual citizenship.

7/21 Image
In 2014 elections for the EU Parliament, PVV received four seats & tried to form a new parliamentary group together with France's Front National. This coalition was then joined by Italy's Lega Nord & Austria's FPÖ. Each of these parties have had close ties to the Kremlin.

8/21


Image
Image
Image
Image
In Oct 2023, investigative journalism platform Follow the Money (@FTM_eu) published an article by @LaurensGR92 about Wilders' and PVV's connections to the Kremlin. The story was based on leaked documents that were allegedly hacked by a Ukrainian hacker group.

9/21 Image
It exposed various collaborations between Russian officials and PVV members, and most of this was coordinated through the Russian Peace Foundation,a pro-Kremlin propaganda organization of the right-wing populist Parliamentarian Leonid Slutsky. The hacked documents showed,..
10/21 Image
...that Slutsky and his foundation have influenced and bribed Western politicians and decision-makers for at least ten years. These people were invited to election observation missions, events promoting "traditional values", conferences and anti-NATO and anti-EU events.

11/21 Image
The leaks also show that Wilders and PVV have tried to conceal its ties with the Kremlin. In one of the leaked e-mails from 2016, Wilders demanded that the general public would not see the Russian guests present at a meeting of European sister parties.

12/21 Image
This collaboration was also evident from Wilders' and PVV's comments. In 2016, Wilders described Vladimir Putin as a "true patriot" and an ally in the war against Islamic extremism. In the same year, Geert opposed the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine.

13/21
Image
Image
In 2017, Geert claimed that there was "hysterical Russophobia" in the Dutch government and that he wanted to counter this. This was after The Dutch Safety Board had issued its final report on the downing of MH17, concluding the crash was caused by a Russian Buk system.

14/21
Image
Image
In 2018, he traveled to Russia and met with several senior Russian officials in the Duma. Before his trip, he tweeted "Russia. Moscow. Duma. Stop the Russiaphobia. It's time for Realpolitik. Partnership instead of enmity!" His trip was criticized harshly by the relatives...
15/21 Image
...of Dutch victims of the MH17 disaster, blaming Wilders for disregarding the Kremlin's involvement in the tragedy. On the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb 2022, he tweeted "Do not let Dutch households pay the price for a war that is not ours."
16/21
Image
Image
Wilders' PVV supported a (unsuccessful) motion to declare Dutch neutrality in Feb 2022 and to end sanctions on Russia in June 2022. He justified this by the rising inflation and the European energy crisis, completely disregarding Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine.

17/21 Image
Later in 2022, Wilders and PVV condemned the invasion, but strongly argued against military aid to Ukraine. Recently, in one of the last debates before the recent Dutch election, Geert stated that he would not support sending Ukraine more weapon.

18/21 Image
Does Wilders' win mean that the Netherlands will stop their aid to Ukraine? Probably not. They got 35 out of 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament, and PVV will have hard time making it to the government without watering down their political manifesto:


19/21
As a nation, the Dutch are overwhelmingly in favor of arming Ukraine. They were one of the first countries to promise F-16's to Ukraine, and even donated Ukraine tanks even though they don't even own any.

20/21
Image
Image
We should always respect the results of a democratic elections, but the Dutch election is still a wake up call for the whole of Europe - pro-Kremlin political parties have been extremely successful in EU and NATO countries like Hungary, Slovakia & now in the Netherlands.

21/21

Image
Image
Image
I have paused personal donations for now, please support @U24_gov_ua by donating to the #HopakChallenge and sending me the receipt:

@Trinityaudiobot
CORRECTION: PVV has 37 seats instead of 35. Thank you to @hanksetank (and others) for pointing this out!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pekka Kallioniemi

Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @P_Kallioniemi

Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

1/20 Image
On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

2/20 Image
Image
What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

3/20 Image
Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

1/5 Image
The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

2/5 Image
Image
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

3/5 Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

1/21 Image
Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

2/21 Image
Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

3/21 Image
Read 23 tweets
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

1/21 Image
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

2/21 Image
Image
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

3/21 Image
Image
Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.

1/15 Image
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.

The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.

2/15 Image
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:

3/15

vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(