The Dutch debate on asylum-seekers has come to this: Firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders handing out self-defense sprays to women fearful of what he describes as "Islamic testosterone bombs" in the wake of the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Cologne.
Wilders, surrounded by bodyguards and police, visited a market today in the largely blue-collar town of Spijkenisse to hand out the sprays, which contained red paint.
Amid stalls selling vegetables, fish, flowers and bicycle parts, Wilders got a rock-star welcome from dozens of supporters, while others protested his visit, waving placards including one that read, "Refugees are welcome, racism is not."
The publicity stunt fits into Wilders' uncompromising anti-immigrant, anti-Islam rhetoric that has propelled him to the top of Dutch opinion polls, just over a year away from the parliamentary election.
In between shaking hands and posing for selfies with supporters, the Freedom Party leader said that, if elected, he would, "close the borders immediately and have no more asylum-seekers. We just cannot afford to have more. The Dutch people in a big majority don't want it and we cannot afford it and it makes our people and women only more unsafe."
His message is gaining traction here amid a surge of refugees to Europe and following deadly attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris last year.
It echoes Republican front-runner Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and is similar to other populist, nationalist groups in Europe like Marine Le Pen's National Front in France.
"The tendencies across Europe are very similar," said University of Amsterdam political science professor Wouter van der Brug.
"Across Europe, right-wing populist parties are picking up support as a result of the asylum crisis that we're facing now, and also as a result of terrorist attacks."
Leontine Maris was one of the first women to get a spray from Wilders. The 53-year-old said she votes for him though she disagrees with some of his more extreme comments. She said she was afraid not just of migrants, but also Dutch men.
"The whole society is going down the drain," she said. As Wilders' popularity soars on the back of such disenchantment, Prime Minister Mark Rutte's two-party coalition is in a slump, losing ground mainly to Wilders.
"Wilders is getting support across different layers of society," Van der Brug said.
