Dutch populist Wilders suspends campaign due to threat

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, who is leading polls ahead of this month’s election, on Friday suspended all his campaign activities due to a possible security threat.

Wilders, in a post on X, said the Dutch national anti-terrorism agency NCTV had confirmed to him that a group that was seen to be planning attacks on politicians including Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever had also mentioned him as a possible target.

He said the NCTV saw no further threat from the group, which Belgian prosecutors on Thursday said had been thwarted by a police operation in which two suspects had been arrested.

“But I have a bad feeling about this and am suspending all my campaign activities until further notice,” Wilders said.

The anti-Islam populist had already cancelled a debate with leaders of other political parties on Friday afternoon, seen as the start of the campaign for the vote on October 29, due to the threat.

He had also been set to appear in a televised debate with the leaders of the three other largest parties in the Netherlands on Sunday evening.

Belgian prosecutors said the arrested suspects were seen to be planning “a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack targeting politicians”.

Wilders, who has called Islam an existential threat to freedom in the Netherlands, has been living under tight security for more than 20 years due to Islamist death threats.

He won the previous election with a surprisingly wide margin two years ago, but toppled the first government his PVV party had ever joined within a year as he accused other parties of failing to back his tougher immigration policies.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton)