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The uncontrolled wave of immigrants to the European Union countries, which reached its peak in 2015, challenged not only the well-established system of asylum policies in the Member States but also revealed the fundamental differences among them concerning the so-called “immigration issue”. The article focuses on the mechanisms and institutions which evolved during the different waves of immigrants in Belgium and the Netherlands. It also looks for an answer to the question: is mass immigration to Europe a threat or an opportunity? Depending on one’s attitude to the topic, the answer may be positive or negative.

The mass influx of immigrants to Europe in 2015 shook the foundations of the political system of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The concept of populism dominated the political discourse related to various concepts of how to solve this problem. After the death of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, two politicians using harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and murdered by Islamic fanatics, a new generation of right-wing populist activists appeared on the political scene of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Two of them, Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet, run their own political parties and are increasingly successful. The Freedom Party of Geert Wilders became the second strongest party in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Forum for Democracy party founded by Thierry Baudet won two seats in the Second Chamber of Parliament in the 2017 election.The author of this article focuses on both these politicians and their party programmes. He argues that the culmination of populism in Europe, which fell between the peak of the 2015 migration crisis and the 2017 parliamentary elections, has changed the attitude of leading politicians to this concept. Populism has been ‘permanently’ appearing in salons. The thesis of ‘good’ populism, proclaimed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, indicates its inclusion in the arsenal of political means also used by liberals to defend a democratic order.