A single campaign image posted by PVV leader Geert Wilders in August triggered 14,402 complaints at anti-discrimination offices and another 1,935 at the online hotline MOD — the largest cluster of reports ever recorded in the Netherlands.

The surge helped push reports to bureaus to a record 25,356 for the year, far exceeding the roughly 2,500 complaints filed in the immediate aftermath of the post.

Police logged 10,748 discrimination incidents in 2025, up 12% on the previous year and marking a third consecutive annual rise. The hotline recorded 2,766 reports, nearly four times the 2024 total – though the spike was largely driven by the same Wilders-related cluster.

The report points out that these figures reflect reported incidents and may also reflect rising awareness and willingness to report, not just underlying levels of discrimination.

Still high without Wilders

Even excluding the cluster, bureaus handled 10,954 complaints – below 2024’s unusually high level but well above the 6,351 recorded in 2023. Researchers point to increased visibility of reporting platforms such as Discriminatie.nl and a series of flashpoint incidents during the election campaign.

They also note that only about one in ten people who experience discrimination report it, meaning the figures represent only a fraction of actual cases.

Reports involving sex discrimination rose from 10% to 15% of reported cases, while those involving sexual orientation doubled from 6% to 12%. A separate cluster of 411 complaints followed the fundamentalist Protestant SGP’s decision not to include women on its candidate list for the October election.

The report also points to heightened concern over street harassment of women after the murder of a 17-year-old sparked nationwide protests, as well as broader debates around online gender dynamics – though it stops short of drawing direct causal links.

The report also highlighted 295 complaints about an anti-Asian reference in Amsterdam’s jubilee book De jarige stad, and more than 80 complaints about the continued use of blackface Zwarte Piet in the December Sinterklaas celebrations.