The thing is, he kinda sorta distanced himself from his earlier anti-Islam statements. Not really though, but he made them ‘negotiable’ in order to get into government. This in turn seems to have opened the door for VVD to not exclude them from taking part in government from the start. This made PVV a ‘legitimate’ choice where it was once seen as throwing away your vote because they would be excluded anyway.

But I’m no political analyst so take this with a grain of salt.