> GEERT WILDERS Biding Time His party has but a single member and its entire programme fits, easily, on a single sheet of paper. Geert Wilder is not one for subtleties: he wants to place Muslims at risk of radicalisation in preventative custody, close the borders to immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, and take the country out of the European Union. Only thus, Mr Wilders argues, can the Netherlands regain control of its own destiny. Inimical to ‘leftist hobbies’, the leader of the Party for Freedom (Partij Voor de Vrijheid – PVV) also aims to shut down public broadcasting and stop all subsidies to cultural life and expression. His vision of the Netherlands leaves no room for diversity. In Mr Wilders’ dictionary, multiculturalism is a dirty word. A significant number of Dutch voters are susceptible to Mr Wilder’s message. He currently leads the polls for the March 15 parliamentary election and may see his party’s seats in the lower chamber doubled to thirty or more. Interestingly, and worryingly, most declared PVV voters do not seem to take Mr Wilders at his word and dismiss his more radical ideas as electoral posturing. He also attracts a significant portion of the protest vote, formerly confined to the left. Since Mr Wilders has zero chance of becoming the next prime minister – all but a few smaller parties have ruled out a coalition with the PVV – a vote for his party is seen as a safe way of expressing discontent without upsetting the consensus that has ruled Dutch post-war politics. The enfant terrible of the Netherlands since he was expelled from the liberal Peoples’ Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie – VVD) in 2004, Geert Wilders has, reluctantly, been recognised as a smart political operator. In order to maintain a tight grip on his platform, discourage dissent, and ensure organisational efficiency, Mr Wilders has refused to allow anyone, aside from himself, to join the PVV. The party, effectively a one-manband, holds no congresses and admits only a limited degree of voter participation. Thus, Mr Wilders tries to avoid the mistakes that proved fatal to similar xenophobic parties in the past which succumbed to infighting and disappeared from the scene almost as fast as they burst onto it. Mr Wilders also espouses a number of less publicised and more esoteric ideas such as the absorption of the Dutch-speaking Flanders region of Belgium into a Greater Netherlands, and closer ties with South Africa’s Afrikaners. Other foreign policy proposals include a prohibition on all “propaganda” for Palestine and the Palestinians, the removal of the “Dutch” star featured on the EU flag, and unqualified support for the State 48
of Israel. Domestically, Mr Wilders wants to ban the Koran, stop all government support for initiatives that fight climate change, and repeal anti-smoking laws.
refused to endorse the expenditure cuts needed to weather the economic downturn. “When the going got tough, Mr Wilders got going,” remembers Prime Minister Rutte.
Much less controversially, the PVV aims to ban ‘gender apartheid’, increase penalties for violence against the Jewish and LGBT communities, and bring the retirement age back to 65.
Meanwhile, Mr Wilders remains convinced that sooner or later he will make prime minister. As he is pushed into a corner by the established parties, Mr Wilders bides his time all the while reminding voters that his PVV suffers discrimination at the hands of an ‘elite’ determined to ignore the will of the people. That line of reasoning becomes increasingly difficult to discredit. Even so, Mr Wilders is not without influence: his discourse is pulling the entire body politic of the Netherlands to the nationalist right with even Prime Minister Rutte taking a much harder stance on immigration and calling for a return to home-grown values in an attempt to nibble away at the PVV.
The informal cordon sanitaire which has been struck around Mr Wilders and his PVV is, however, cause for concern: a fair chunk of the Dutch electorate may become disenfranchised. Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the VVD remains adamant and refuses to even contemplate entering into any kind of coalition with his nemesis who he holds responsible for the collapse of his minority government in 2010. At the time, Mr Wilders CFI.co | Capital Finance International