Geert Wilders' Freedom Party has rocketed into a position of real power in the Netherlands. Although it is not actually part of the minority government coalition, its support in parliament has been rewarded by many of its ideas being incorporated into government policies.

The party's anti-establishment image and anti-Islam views have brought it huge popularity in a relatively short period of time.

However, now that the rebel with a cause is starting to be invited to meetings and debates by big business and mainstream political parties, there is a danger its controversial image may fade and so may its electoral support.

Product of the establishment
Political scientist André Krouwel of the Free University says it is not at all strange that Freedom Party MP Martin Bosma has been invited by an organisation like the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a Labour Party think-tank, to debate party political processes with former Labour deputy prime minister Wouter Bos.

Or that another prominent PVV MP, Hero Brinkman, has been invited to a meeting at Dutch consultancy Twynstra Gudde to talk about the state of democracy in the Netherlands, as reported in daily freesheet De Pers. The paper writes that the Freedom Party is gradually opening its doors to the very establishment it criticises. Meanwhile the elite is doing what it always does, writes the paper, taming the beast.

What is interesting, according to Mr Krouwel, is that the party is allowing itself to be absorbed into the mainstream. However, he also points out that Geert Wilders himself is a product of the establishment. Before entering politics, he only ever had one other job, as a low-level civil servant.

In 1990 he became policy writer for the then-VVD leader Frits Bolkestein. He was a VVD MP for six years before being expelled for refusing to tow the party line on EU membership for Turkey. He remained in parliament as a one-man party, which later became the Freedom Party.

No party structure
Mr Krouwel agrees that a normalisation of the Freedom Party is taking place and it is in the interests of the establishment and especially the governing parties to embrace Geert Wilders and his ideas. The development is good for democracy, but bad for the Freedom Party because it damages its strategy of playing the role of outcast. Twenty-five percent of Freedom Party voters already think Geert Wilders is a minister in the cabinet, although the party is not officially part of government.

The trial of the Freedom Party leader will help prolong his status as an outsider, however, slowly but surely, people will start to see him as part of the establishment. And if that happens Mr Krouwel thinks that will lead to the downfall of the party.

The party is particularly vulnerable because it is too dependent on its leader. There is no organisation and no party structure. Nevertheless, if the party does disappear its electorate won't. Anti-Islamic sentiments have become firmly established as a force to reckon with in politics.

Illiberal
In response to reports on internet site nu.nl that Geert Wilders said that the anti-Islam wave is unstoppable, Mr Krouwel says the same is happening everywhere in Europe. Right-wing and liberal parties are splintering to form new anti-immigration parties. In the Netherlands we have already seen the rise and fall of Pim Fortuyn's List and Proud of the Netherlands in quick succession.

If the Freedom Party disappears from the political arena it won't be long before the next member of the VVD stands up and starts another illiberal, anti-religious party, unless the VVD manages to win over the hearts of Freedom Party voters. But if it does it will be breaking with its own 19th century liberal traditions.