[11] Wilders was joined by Bart Jan Spruyt of the Edmund Burke Foundation, with both aiming to establish a conservative party.

Initially, they had planned to release it jointly with Pim Fortuyn List politicians Joost Eerdmans and Marco Pastors, but Wilders ultimately withdrew from the collaboration.

Wilders' leading role in the campaign against the European Constitution, which was rejected by Dutch voters by 62%, led to a rise.

The seats were taken by the "old nine": Wilders, Fleur Agema, Raymond de Roon, Hero Brinkman, Martin Bosma, Dion Graus, Barry Madlener, Teun van Dijck and Sietse Fritsma.

[18] The Dutch government, the European Union, and other international organizations feared a repeat of the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, which led to a media hype.

Although the Dutch government distanced itself from the film and it received international reactions, it offered little new, and the anticipated escalation did not materialize.

However, negotiations to join the municipal executive failed in both cities, partly due to the PVV's demand to ban headscarves for civil servants.

The European Commission has condemned the website, and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding declared, "We call on all citizens of the Netherlands not to join in this intolerance.

[23] On 20 March 2012, Hero Brinkman quit the party, citing a lack of democratic structure within the PVV among other things; qualifying this with a statement of continued support for the minority Rutte cabinet.

[25] In July 2012, Marcial Hernandez and Wim Kortenoeven quit the PVV, both citing what they considered to be Wilders' autocratic leadership of the party.

However, in the relative absence of Geert Wilders during the campaign – notably refusing to participate in both RTL debates – support for the PVV collapsed, and the VVD secured a narrow lead in the final weeks before the election.

[39] It was also noted Wilders had softened some of his statements and moderated some of the PVV's positions, and that immigration was one of the most important issues of the election which helped to boost his appeal.

The Schoof cabinet was sworn in on 2 July 2024, with PVV politician Fleur Agema appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.

Others have claimed that the PVV overlaps in some areas with the former Pim Fortuyn List party which combined nationalism and liberal principles.

[52][53][54] Political historian Koen Vossen identified four pillars of the PVV's ideology: anti-Islam,[55] populism, nationalism and law and order.

[57] The PVV's view of Islam is amongst others inspired by Oriana Fallaci's The Force of Reason, Bat Ye'or's Eurabia and the works of Hans Jansen.

[7] The PVV seeks to exclude Dutch citizens with dual citizenship from voting, serving in the military,[59] and holding political office.

While in opposition, the party filed motions of no confidence against cabinet members with dual citizenship, such as Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak (both in 2007).

[62] The PVV has generally taken a more moderate and socially liberal attitude on LGBT rights and same-sex marriage in contrast to other European populist parties.

[64] In 2023, the PVV refused to sign the Rainbow accord (Regenboogakkoord in Dutch) which made parties pledge and agree to take action against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender and skin colour by handing out harsher sentences for violent crimes, more detectives to research discrimination and providing safer refuge for LGBT refugees.

[66] The party was supportive of the War on terror in the beginning, but changed its position around 2016 to non-interventionism, arguing the Netherlands is not responsible for the "rubble of the Islamic world".

[72] Following the 2024 European Parliament election, the PVV said it would pause its support for Nexit and made this decision to accommodate its negotiation partners during the ongoing 2023-2024 cabinet formation.

[73] A research paper by the European Center for Populism Studies described the PVV's prior attitude towards Putin and Russia as mixed and more complex compared to other national-populist movements, with Wilders making somewhat supportive statements of Putin in the context of portraying him as an ally against Islamic terrorism and immigration, the PVV advocating a neutral policy on the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 and opposing Ukrainian membership of the EU.

[74] The party has since expressed some criticism of the extent of Dutch military support for Ukraine[75][76] and has advocated for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Despite drawing inspiration from American law and order politicians such as Rudy Giuliani and Joe Arpaio, the PVV opposes capital punishment and the right to keep and bear arms.

[86][87] The gull had also been used as a symbol by the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands on propaganda posters and for their youth wing,[87] but Wilders claimed it was not inspired by Nazi usage.

[1][90] The most important reason for refusing members was to prevent a repeat of the right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), which succumbed to factional infighting after the murder of its founder.

[92] Later, Wilders and Bosma would introduced more principled reasons, arguing that membership parties were old-fashioned and had lost their contact with society.

Some media outlets have noted that in line with other European populist parties, its voters tend to either be on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum or those concerned about immigration and crime.

For example, Hero Brinkman claimed in 2012 after he had left the party that the PVV received most of its finances from foreign (American) lobby groups.