In January HP/De Tijd revealed that one of their reporters had gone undercover to work as an intern with Geert Wilders’ Party of Freedom (PVV), and the reporter in question, Karen Geurtsen, duly published her revelations in the weekly magazine.

The stunt caused mixed reactions. Geurtsen highlighted the fact that she had clearly not been screened (anyone could have googled her and found that she was a journalist, she claimed), and that her escapade therefore revealed the serious lack of security surrounding the PVV Wilders. The National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism responded by saying that they are not responsible for everyone who enters the party entourage, only those in a trustworthy position.

Other journalists remarked that although the sensationalism of the action didn’t appeal, it did turn up some nice newsworthy product about a major public figure in an original way. All in all, the revelations about how the party works on the inside were not that remarkable. The conclusions of Geurtsen’s diary covering her four months with the party, now published as a book Undercover bij de PVV, are the following:

1)      The PVV is totally directed towards gaining media attention

2)      The party’s standpoint is simple: Islam is bad, the government is bad, all other parties are bad, and the PVV is the only good force around

3)      The party knows full well that it needs the ‘leftist’ media and its social critics, as a way of constantly triggering reactions and staying in the media spotlight

4)      The party is dismissive about its own supporters

5)      Wilders is the supreme boss, with little in the way of opposition from the other eight MPs

6)      Wilders regrets having referred to a ‘head-rag tax’ for muslim women who wear a headscarf (although he denies this in public

7)      The party members don’t make many racist comments (the only one in four months was apparently that ‘those who throw rubbish on the street have this behaviour in their genes,’ a comment directed towards Maroccans)

 What do we get from this? Not much of the unexpected, it has to be said. Most of the above – racism excepted – would fit within any political party. In the early 1990s the Groene Amsterdammer sent an undercover reporter into the then-existing far right Central Democrats and came out with stunning revelations of how the party members would stand around singing Nazi songs. No such discovery here. And maybe that is the best thing that can be said about this whole affair – what you see with the PVV is pretty much what you get.