2023-11-23 01:22:39
The far right Geert Wilderswho has just won the legislative elections, He is the most threatened politician in the Netherlands for his war against Islamism and, since his lightning time in the government in 2010, the political rejection of his speech had condemned him to being the eternal leader of the opposition, although Wednesday’s elections bring him new hope.
The change in tone is reciprocal: Wilders appears willing to make concessions on his list of priorities and reduce his traditional rhetoric against Islam, while the center-right parties no longer rule him out as a possible partner in a future government coalition. “There are more important priorities,” admitted the far-right leader.
Wilders, 60 years old, is already essential on the Dutch political scene: He is one of the most protected people in the Netherlands for two decades due to his criticism of Islam and immigrants of Muslim origin, which has brought him threats from inside and outside the country.
In 2020, the Dutch Justice convicted him of “insulting a group” for his campaign against Moroccan immigrants, although he was acquitted of inciting hatred and discrimination.
He founded the Freedom Party (PVV) in 2006, although he began his political career as a deputy for the right-wing liberal VVD party, the same party as interim Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He split in 2004 due to disagreements in the debate over Turkey’s accession to the European Union (EU).
The PVV is a peculiar party: it has no members other than Wilders, it has always been defined as “ultra-right”, although in its electoral manifesto it says it opposes the “madness of the left”, and opts for “a right-wing policy that is tough on immigration, law and order, but social on purchasing power and healthcare.”
He also wants, for example, reduce the retirement agewhich he would finance with “the billions of euros that have now been reserved for climate measures and to reduce nitrogen emissions.”
Likewise, it defends the abolition of the risk policy in compulsory medical insurance, and the reduction of VAT on food to zero percent.
Their plans include the end of subsidies to the artistic and cultural sectorpublic broadcasting and development cooperation, while reducing the Netherlands’ financial contributions to the European Union (EU), and calling a referendum for a “Nexit”, the Dutch version of Brexit, to leave the area community, which today does not have national support.
Potential partner
In 2010, during Rutte’s first term, Wilders committed himself as a tactical partner of the VVD in the government, but two years later, he withdrew his support in the midst of the financial crisis and forced new elections to be called, a step that led Rutte to save him. resentment. He vetoed him in the three legislatures that he led later, lor that he condemned leading the opposition despite its high number of seats.
Geert Wilders will have difficulties forming a government in the Netherlands. AP Photo
But several groups have withdrawn that veto, including Rutte’s successor, Dilan Yesilgöz, who has assured that “it does not exclude any voters,” including those of PVV.
Wilders himself has said that “after the elections, everything flows differently and the PVV cannot be ignored, especially if the (center-right) parties want to avoid a cabinet with GroenLinks-PvdA (the left-wing bloc of the Greens). and social democrats, third in the polls)”.
In order to get a seat at the negotiating table, Wilders has said that, although the core value of the PVV is still limiting “Islamization”, the Netherlands currently has “bigger problems” than Islam, among which he mentioned immigration and asylum policy, health care and social security. “Those will be our priorities,” she said.
Your program continues to highlight the plans of ban mosques, Islamic schools, the Koran (which he compares to Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’) and the veil in public buildings, although he clarifies that he will not require compliance with these points as a condition to be a partner in the future government.
His preferred government combination, he said, is with the liberal VVD, the BBB peasants’ party, the far-right JA21, but also the New Social Contract (NSC), of the Christian Democrat Pieter Omtzigt, who, Wilders admitted, “still needs to be convinced “because it is not clear that he wants him as a partner.
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