Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch radical right, yesterday asked his surprised and shocked political rivals to find common ground to rule the country, with him as prime minister. A call made after achieving an election victory on Wednesday that shook (and still makes) both the Netherlands and Europe. “It is an earthquake,” René Cuperus of the Dutch think tank Institute Clingendael said yesterday about Wilders’ election victory. “A Trump moment in Dutch politics”.
The Freedom Party (PVV) won 37 of the 150 seats in parliament, more than doubling its share in the last election and outpacing its opponents, near-complete results show. The left-wing coalition led by former Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans lagged far behind with 25 deputies, while the center-right VVD obtained 24, a catastrophic result for the party of still Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and now led by the Minister of Justice, Dilan Yesilgöz.
“The voters have spoken. The seats have been allocated. Now it is important that we look for things we can agree on,” said 60-year-old Geert Wilders, who toasted his electoral success with a glass of champagne and cake. He also assured that he wants to be ‘prime minister of all Dutch people’ and that he will ‘work hard with other parties’ to ensure understanding between the governments.
With the party over, Wilders now has the difficult task of trying to form a functional coalition, courting rivals who have categorically ruled out the possibility of serving in a PVV-led government before Wednesday’s elections. For the time being, it has the support of the other two radical right parties – FvD and JA21 –, with the three together guaranteeing only 41 seats.
The magic number to reach a majority in parliament and form a government is 76 out of a total of 150 deputies. Even before the final results were known – in fact, before the elections and based on opinion polls – the Dutch were already using a calculator to try to understand which coalition – with which and how many parties – will be able to reach that magical number. . And it is not clear how Wilders will be able to collect the 76 seats needed to become prime minister, as he wants, and form a government. “It will be entirely up to the VVD,” Sarah de Lange, professor of Political Pluralism at the University of Amsterdam, explains to AFP. “A big question will be who will become prime minister, because with Wilders as prime minister, the Netherlands has an impossible situation internationally,” he added.
Pieter Omtzigt, whose New Social Contract party, which was founded this year, came in fourth place with the most votes and won twenty deputies, will play a decisive role in any coalition scenario, because he has already made himself ‘available’ for talks and admits that it would not be easy. .
The face of the defeat in these elections, Dilan Yesilgöz, who saw his VDD rise from 34 to 24 deputies, declared on Wednesday evening that Wilders should see if he could form a coalition, and during the campaign he had opened the door for the leader of the radical right was part of a government led by the VVD, but emphasized that it would not serve under his leadership.
Caroline van der Plas, leader of the Peasant-Citizen Movement (BBB), said yesterday that she was interested in participating with her seven elected officials in a coalition with the PVV, as long as Wilders moderates some of his positions.
Outside these narratives, and already positioning himself as leader of the opposition in the Netherlands, will be Frans Timmermans, whose Labour/Green bloc came in second place, reaching 25 deputies (eight more than in the last election). “I suspect we will end up in opposition,” the former vice president of the European Commission said yesterday, according to Politico, at a meeting of the alliance he led. As soon as the results were known, Timmermans had already ruled out cooperation with Wilders, saying his role was to “defend democracy in the country”.
A problem for Brussels
The surprise victory of Eurosceptic Geert Wilders caused a political shock in Brussels. Yet, despite Wilders’ promise to hold a Nexit referendum, pro-European parties are not yet afraid that the Netherlands will follow the British example and leave the European Union if the PVV leader takes over the leadership of the Hague government takes.
However, his victory in the legislature of a key European Union country raises alarms about the possibility of populist parties gaining strength in next year’s European Parliament elections.
“The European Union runs the risk of death both inside and outside,” Socialist MEP Raphael Glucksmann said yesterday in an interview with France 2, warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin would celebrate Wilders’ triumph.
The Netherlands is the seventh most populous country in the EU and the members of the European Parliament – together with right-wing elected officials from countries such as Poland, Italy, France and Hungary – could form a powerful bloc. “We can at least expect a consolidation of right-wing populists, and even an increase in their number of seats in the European Parliament,” says Nathalie Brack of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Currently the PVV has no members of the European Parliament, but after the June 2024 elections it could change this scenario and join forces such as the National Union (former National Front of France’s Marine Le Pen), AfD (the second largest opposition party in Germany) or League (of Italian Minister Matteo Salvini) in the European parliamentary group Identity and Democracy.
Cheering on the right
Several leaders of the European far right celebrated Geert Wilders’ victory. One of them was Chega’s president, André Ventura, who warned that “the next will be Portugal!”. Marine Le Pen, former president of the National Union, also congratulated the PVV and its leader “on their spectacular performance in the parliamentary elections, which confirms the growing commitment to defending national identity.”
The Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport shared a photo with his “friend Wilders”, calling him a “historic ally of the League”, Matteo Salvini’s party, and congratulating him on “this extraordinary election victory”, emphasizing that ‘a new Europe possible’.
From Spain, Vox President Santiago Abascal recalled that “more and more Europeans are demanding on the streets and in elections that their nations, their borders and their rights be defended.”
What Wilders and the PVV defend
Islam
“With a reduction in the asylum and immigration flow to the Netherlands, the Islamization of our country will also be reduced,” according to the PVV election manifesto, which emphasizes that the Netherlands “is not an Islamic country: there are no Islamic schools, Qurans or mosques.” “, which also defends the “ban on the use of Islamic scarves in government buildings”.
Immigration
The PVV proposes an “asylum freeze” and “a generally more restrictive immigration policy”, as well as an exclusion from EU asylum and migration rules. Illegal immigrants will be arrested and deported, and refugees with residence permits will also lose them ‘when they go on holiday to their country of origin’. EU citizens will need a work permit and the number of foreign students will decrease, the manifesto promises.
Europe
The PVV rejects any form of ‘political union’ like the EU and ‘wants a binding referendum on the Nexit’, the idea that the country could leave the EU. Until such a referendum is held, the Netherlands wants to become a net beneficiary of EU funds, and not a net contributor.
Foreign policy
The PVV is a “great friend of the only real democracy in the Middle East: Israel”, is also stated in the election manifesto. Diplomatic relations with Sharia law countries will be severed “immediately”.
climate
“For decades we have been forced to fear climate change… We must stop being afraid,” says the PVV manifesto, which calls for more oil and gas extraction from the North Sea and the maintenance of coal and gas power stations. such as the construction of more nuclear power plants.
Source: DN
