The success of fascist tendencies is definitely a code smell. In a less extreme sense, any development that embraces the use of global variables bears a risk of unpredictable and potentially catastrophic outcomes. Sadly, because it is so easy to refer to global variables, they will always have a great deal of appeal for those seeking closures.

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Ok, so let me spell it out then: Geert Wilders is seen by a surprisingly large number of people who really should know better as a 'great leader' and a 'strong man' who will lead us out of this mess. The biggest thing on 'our side' is that NL is a crappy little country and that we don't have a functioning army (or at least, not a very large one) due to budget cuts over the last couple of years. But Mr. Wilders is taking a lot of leaves out of the playbook of Mr. Hitler, who - just to remind you - was also voted into power. He's positioning himself as the solution to a problem, a problem that has been on the minds of many. The idea that once in power he won't be quite as bad is hilarious, he's been playing his cards very close to his chest, runs his 'party' as a one man show with a puppet faction backing him up in the chambers of parliament and will no doubt make at least an attempt to deliver. At a minimum his plans will set NL back about 25 years in international relations, his policies are strongly isolationist (return to the guilder, close the borders, withdraw from various treaties and so on) and his stance on freedom of religion and such will make NL the laughingstock of the EU at best and a pariah at worst. Once NL is successfully isolated from the influence of the rest of the EU I expect him to reveal his real playbook. Whatever it is it can't be much good given what we've seen to date.

This is a very scared, very scary person who is pushing every emotional button available with his policies and rhetoric who has the backing of a much too large segment of the country already. If you had told me 25 years ago that this would happen in NL I would not have believed you but I'm witnessing it. This whole thing started with the murder of a guy called Pim Fortuyn, the previous populist (who at least made some sense some of the time), he would have done some damage but not enough to seriously threaten the country. The segment woken up by the voice of Fortuyn was then handily co-opted by Wilders, who is now in an excellent position to put his play-book into action. It's super scary to watch friends and even relatives succumb to this idiots words and to hear his words being echoed by people dear to you.

It's like watching a re-run of Germany, ca. 1935, and then too people were saying 'Oh, it won't be that bad, he's just going to wake up when he actually has power' and we all know how that one ended.

Again, fortunately, NL is a crappy little country, but don't forget that Hitler came from Austria, not from Germany to begin with, who knows what his plans are. There is a large body of similar minded people in Belgium, and a much larger one still in France led by one Marine Le Pen. You can bet they're planning some sort of collaboration (too early to call it an anschluss) once they have managed to capture some power.

It's like watching the periscope of a submarine moving through a flotilla of merchant boats.