by THIJS BROEKKAMP
The Netherlands faces another far-right victory in this month’s elections. But a resurgence of anti-fascist organizing suggests extremists remain a loud minority, writes Thijs Broekkamp.
On a grey afternoon in Schiedam, a
small Dutch city near Rotterdam, police horses line the streets as a few
hundred protesters gather to oppose the opening of an asylum centre.
Across the Netherlands, demonstrations like this now occur every few
days, as migration remains the dominant theme in Dutch politics. The
government has twice collapsed over the issue, most recently in June,
leading to new elections in late October. Ideas of a ‘great replacement’
and the notion that the Netherlands is ‘full’ are widespread, fueled by
right-wing politicians. Since Trump lookalike Geert Wilders’ far-right,
anti-immigration Party for Freedom (PVV) won the 2023 elections in a
landslide, extremist views have become increasingly normalized.
Across
from the main square in Schiedam stands a smaller counter-demonstration
of about 30 people, encircled by police. It was organized by
Anti-Fascist Action Netherlands (AFA), a loose network opposing racist
and fascist movements. Many participants wear masks or scarves over
their faces as they hold a banner that reads ‘Refugees are welcome
here’. A young woman says the face coverings are in response to many
cases of doxing, where right-wing protesters post people’s personal
information online.
‘I’m quite nervous,’ she says. ‘It’s my first protest and the atmosphere is tense.’
The
woman has good reason to be on edge. A few weeks earlier, chaos erupted
during a large anti-immigration rally in The Hague. Masked men set
police cars on fire, waved flags of the NSB – the
Dutch fascist and Nazi party from World War II – attacked journalists,
vandalized the offices of D66, a centrist political party and attempted
to storm the parliament building.
But these events appear to have awakened the left-wing protest movement, which is less visible and organized than the far right. Only five of the 16 AFA branches remain since the network’s founding in the 1990s – marches that once drew hundreds of people now only bring in around a dozen. Their decline is linked to the shift of far-right activity from street-level violence to parliamentary politics, making traditional local anti-fascist street protests less relevant and effective. At the same time the mainstreaming of far-right rhetoric means the fascist label no longer sparks the same level of public concern.
Continental Reach
The
events in Schiedam are a familiar scene across the continent, where
seven European Union states have far-right governments in power –
including the Netherlands. Once celebrated as a beacon of tolerance,
Dutch society is wrestling with rising racism. Since 2001, anti-Islamic sentiment has grown,
workplace discrimination remains a problem and battles over racist
traditions like Zwarte Piet (Blackface) have intensified. The 2021
benefits scandal – in which thousands of mostly migrant families were
wrongly accused of fraud – exposed institutional racism at the heart of a
supposedly liberal government.
When
Wilders founded the PVV in 2006, other parties refused to work with him
because of his extremist agenda. Yet over time, mainstream parties – especially the centrist People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) –
gradually adopted tougher language on migration to win back voters
drifting to the right. In 2023, after caving to public pressure to
address the housing crisis and the growing number of refugees, the
liberal VVD no longer ruled out cooperation, forming a coalition
government with the PVV and two other parties. This sharp right turn
made Wilders seem less radical and granted legitimacy to his party.
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