New Delhi: Geert Wilders, the far-Right, anti-Islam, anti-European Union political provocateur has emerged as the leader of the largest party in the Netherlands. By last count, the Party for Freedom led by Wilders was projected to win 37 seats in the 150-seat Dutch house of representatives — more than double the seats it won in the 2021 elections.
According to the Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), Wilders’ party garnered 24,17,515 or 23.5 percent of the total votes cast during the elections.
“The Dutch voter has spoken,” Wilders said in his victory speech late Wednesday, adding, “Voters said, ‘We are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs,” as reported by the Associated Press.
He also said that he will now focus on ending the “asylum tsunami” — a reference to the issue of migration that dominated his campaign and led to the fall of the previous Mark Rutte-led government.
“I had to pinch my arm,” Wilders joked after the results started pouring in. The Party for Freedom has long argued for a referendum on the Netherlands’ membership of the EU, banning the Quran, taxing headscarves and ending immigration from Muslim countries.
However, Wilders indicated Wednesday that he was open to compromise on his anti-Islam position to enter government. He was reported by Politico as saying: “I understand very well that parties do not want to be in a government with a party that wants unconstitutional measures…We are not going to talk about mosques, Qurans and Islamic schools.”
However, Wilders’ path to government is increasingly difficult in the fractious nature of Dutch parliamentary politics. The NOS predicts that at least 15 parties could win enough votes to have a member in the lower house.
The Labour-Green alliance led by Frans Timmermans, the former EU commissioner and Dutch minister of foreign affairs, finished second and is projected to win 25 seats in the house of representatives.
Who is Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders was born in the town of Venlo, close to the German border and the province of North-Rhine Westphalia, on 6 September 1963. The 60-year-old first entered the Dutch house of representatives in 1998 and has remained a member continuously since July 2002.
His mother is part-Indonesian, with her parents returning to Venlo after the Dutch gave up their colonies there. He rarely made public appearances and has lived under police protection since 2004, given his penchant for being direct, dismissive and provocative in his comments, especially on Islam, as reported by The New York Times.
In India, Wilders is known for supporting suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma after her comments on The Prophet led to a controversy. In a post on X, Wilders had called for all Indians to rally in support of Nupur Sharma.
“The whole Indian nation should rally around #napursharma (sic) now and support her. Al Qaida and the Taliban put me on the their hitlist years ago. One lesson: never bow for terrorists. Never!” he posted on 8 June 2022.
Never give in to Islamic terrorists like Al-Qaida, they represent barbarism. The whole Indian nation should rally around #napursharma now and support her. Al Qaida and the Taliban put me on the their hitlist years ago. One lesson: never bow for terrorists. Never! https://t.co/4re4y0Wm2k
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) June 8, 2022
In another post in support of Sharma, Wilders argued that “appeasement” never works and that India must not be “intimidated” by Islamic countries.
Wilders’ path to power
Wilders’ party has consistently finished second (2017) or third (2021) in the previous two Dutch elections but was kept out of power by a series of coalition governments led by Mark Rutte, the long-serving Dutch Prime Minister famously nicknamed ‘Teflon Mark’ for his ability to revive his political career despite a myriad of controversies.
However, migration, which is an issue that has vexed politicians across the EU for years, proved to be Rutte’s Achilles heel. Elections in the Netherlands were called two years early after Rutte and his government led by the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) were unable to clinch a deal on migration.
Rutte, who served for 13 years as Dutch Prime Minister, also retired from politics, leaving the VVD requiring new leadership. He was replaced by Turkish refugee Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, who was vying to be the first female Prime Minister of the Netherlands. The VVD is projected to finish third with 24 seats, a loss of 10 seats since 2021.
However, this time around, with Wilders’ party winning the largest share of votes, this gives him an upper hand if any negotiations for government are to be held. Timmermans Wednesday made it clear that the Labour-Green alliance will not negotiate with Wilders, while the other new party on the block — New Social Contract (NSC), founded in August – led by Pieter Omtzigt had previously ruled out any coalition with Wilders.
By last count, Omtzigt-led NSC is projected to win 20 seats, with a total of 13,16,423 votes cast for the party.
While Wilders’ own path to power seems difficult, his victory has been celebrated across Right-leaning parties on the continent, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declaring that the “winds of change” are here.
The winds of change are here! Congratulations to @geertwilderspvv on winning the Dutch elections! pic.twitter.com/yh9LVcuP5J
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) November 22, 2023
Recent elections across the EU – Finland, Spain and Slovakia – have seen huge victories for Right-leaning and far-Right parties.
In Finland, the Right-wing populist Finns Party is now in government, while in Slovakia, Robert Fico, the populist pro-Russia candidate returned to power, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
Similarly, in Spain, the conservative Right-leaning Popular Party (PP) won the majority of seats but faltered at forming a government. The same was seen in Poland, where the long-reigning Law and Justice Party (PiS) won the single largest number of seats but has been unable to form a government to date.
In June of this year, the centre-Right New Democracy won an outright majority of 158 seats out of 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament in Greece.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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