by MIRA OKLOBDZIJA
Is the Netherlands on the brink of legitimizing racism and discrimination?
Ten days before the Dutch elections, three parties of the 26 on the ballot were seriously in the running. There was the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led by Dilan Ye?ilgöz-Zegerius, a Green-Labour alliance (GL/PvdA) with Frans Timmermans, and New Social Contract (NSC), a brand-new party led by a popular former Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt.
But a week before the elections, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders made an unexpected jump to become a leading contender. The day before the elections almost half of the voters didn’t know whom to back. Many decided to opt strategically for one of forerunners.
The snap parliamentary election took place on November 22. An estimated 78.2 percent of 13.3 million eligible voters cast their ballots. And Wilders came from behind to win, causing right-wing forces at home and in Europe to rejoice and left voters around the world to tremble in fear. Wilders’s party got 37 seats, GL/PvdA 25, the VVD 24, and newcomer NSC 20 seats. Almost all the small parties lost. As it turned out, the left-wing coalition won only in the big cities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Leeuwarden, Groningen, and Haarlem.
The right-wing, anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders now has a good chance, if he manages to form a coalition, to lead a county that thinks of itself as a tolerant, pro-European land that punches above its weight on the international scene. .
Before the Elections
The main questions that dominated pre-election discussions were the polarization in the society, the cost of living, health care, the climate crisis, and the green transition (and who will pay for it). Agriculture and farming was also on the agenda since Netherlands is the world’s second largest exporter of meat and faces the challenge of reducing illegal nitrogen emission levels. Near the top of the list, however, was immigration, especially since the last government fell over a bill to reduce asylum seekers and immigration, including foreign workers,
Voters also registered a high level of mistrust in the government after 13 years of Mark Rutte and his government scandals. A major frustration has also been the Dutch housing crisis: according to one government-commissioned report, the country lacks 390,000 homes. Less discussed was a proposal by most parties that the Dutch royal family, one of the richest in Europe, should finally start to pay taxes. But only the left coalition called for higher taxes for corporations and the rich in general. .
The Netherlands is polarized, with major contrasts between city and countryside. In many cities, the priority was the climate crisis and the preservation of a tolerant, open society that respects human rights and the rule of law. The countryside opted for traditional values, the Netherlands for the Dutch, and the continuation of farming as usual. Climate change, according to many farmers, was just so much apocalyptic fake news.
The debate between the candidates on TV was heated. As journalist Rinskje Koelewijn described it, the studio was converted into an arena, with three hunters and one prey: Frans Timmermans.
The politicians only needed a little push to tap into their baser instincts… Dilan Yesilgöz hissed incessantly “but Mr. Timmermans” when Timmermans spoke. She shook her head, laughed at him, and said yes when he said nothing… When Yesilgöz and Timmermans were roaring at each other about whose side the middle class was better off with, Omtzigt told Wilders, “If it has to be that way, I will work with you,” whereupon he walked around the table to shake his hand…
Similar entertainment for the masses continued until the day of the elections.
Who Is Geert Wilders?
Geert Wilders started his political career as a member of parliament in 1998, first for the centrist VVD, where he mentored a young Mark Rutte, before setting up his own Party for Freedom in 2006. He has been a member of the Dutch parliament for 25 years but has been shut out of coalitions. He consistently demands an exit from the European Union as well as “closed borders” that should stop the “tsunami of asylum seekers and immigration.”
What made him notorious has been his inflammatory language—he has described Islam as a “totalitarian ideology” and called Moroccans “scum”—and his election program called for a ban on the Quran, mosques, and all Islamic schools, as well as on Islamic headscarves in government buildings. Several years ago, a court convicted him of insulting a group of people based on their background after he called for “fewer Moroccans” in a 2014 speech. His anti-Islam rhetoric has made him a target for extremists and led to his living under 24/7 protection for the past two decades. He doesn’t shy from offending other politicians as well, calling outgoing Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag a “witch” and fat-shaming his opponent, Frans Timmermans, during a debate.
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