04 December 2015

Dutch far-right leader Wilders tells Turks: 'You will never join EU'

Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, the most popular politician in the Netherlands, has told Turks "you are not welcome here" in a video that takes aim at Turkey's hopes of joining the European Union.

Wilders, who is fiercely anti-Islam, has surged in public opinion polls with his call for the closing of national borders in the face of a migrant crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Muslims, fleeing to Europe this year to escape conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.

Turkey promised at an EU summit in Brussels last Sunday to help stem the flow of migrants in return for cash, an easing of visa restrictions for Turks visiting Europe and renewed talks on admitting Turkey as a member of the bloc. [Reuters] Read more