Dutch Opponent of Muslims Gains Ground

By STEPHEN CASTLE
NYT

LONDON — Geert Wilders, the anti-Muslim politician who has campaigned for a tax on head scarves and a ban on the Koran, seemed poised Thursday to emerge as a prominent player in a new minority government in the Netherlands.

While the outspoken and populist Mr. Wilders would not gain a ministerial appointment, the proposed deal to form the government would make him one of the most influential politicians in the Netherlands.

Led by Ivo Opstelten, a former mayor of Rotterdam who was appointed mediator for the next stage of negotiations, the discussions on forming a government are expected to take about three weeks.

They follow elections in June in which Mr. Wilders’s Freedom Party increased its number of seats in the 150-seat Parliament to 24, from 9. The center-right Liberal Party, led by Mark Rutte, which emerged as the largest party in Parliament, hopes to enter a coalition with the Christian Democrats, who led the last government.

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