Geert Wilders Populist Government Breakthrough, But at What Cost

Over three months since the Netherlands sensationally swung towards right-populist firebrand Geert Wilders the country is still without a new government, and negotiations now look towards a coalition where the leader of the largest party doesn’t get the largest job, possibly the humbling price of keeping the left out of power.

Dutch populist Geert Wilders emerged the winner of the national elections last year, but as is typical in European states didn’t win enough seats to govern alone, necessitating his building a coalition of other like-minded — or almost like-minded — parties to get enough votes in the house to build a government and pass laws. Just one problem, though: while Wilders gained a historic vote of confidence from the electorate, many politicians in the Netherlands had spent years treating the anti-Islamification campaigner as a political undesirable and beneath contempt.

As said by Wilders, it was time for other party leaders to ‘step over their own shadows’ and get around the negotiating table, but that was easier said than done for some. Coalition talks trying to find a way to cobble together a governing agreement out of the most likely parties emerging from November’s Dutch elections collapsed in February after Nieuw Sociaal Contract, (New Social Contract, NSC) a newly formed centre-right populist party walked away.

While talks seemed dead in the water, there were no other realistic options to form other flavours of government and the left don’t have enough seats to realistically try, eventually leading parties back to talks.

Days of closed-doors meetings this week have now led to a breakthrough between the right-wing parties that means progress can resume, but at a cost. As reported by several national newspapers including Algemeen Dagblad and the broadcaster NOS, the condition of NSC to support a new government is that the obvious next Prime Minister — Geert Wilders himself, as the leader of the largest faction — recuse himself from the role.

The fact Wilders is willing to consider such an approach, denying himself the top job, is clearly indicative of how much he and other party leaders want the government formation to work while avoiding a second election. Despite that, a second election could seriously benefit Wilders: his party has continued to rise in the polls since last year’s vote, perhaps as a result of otherwise sceptical voters realising the longtime outside could credibly be Prime Minister, or as world events shine more light on issues with radical Islamism.

NOS reports “Wilders [is] willing to give up premiership” and the suggested way forward is a solution where none of the party leaders get government roles, but instead nominate other politicians from their factions or non-political figures to ministry positions. No public comments have been made on the development by the party leaders yet and more developments are expected on Thursday.

While supporters of Mr Wilders, and the Dutch who have said in opinion polls since the election that the rightful outcome of the vote is a government led by the winter of the election, may be disappointed by this outcome it isn’t necessarily a disaster for the populist-right. The Netherlands was gripped by the now-world-famous farmer protests last year, with a party founded to represent those anti-green great reset interests storming to a resounding victory in elections that determine the composition of the nation’s upper chamber. It also happens that this party, the BoerBurgerBeweging’s (FarmerCitizenMovement, BBB) Prime Minister candidate isn’t the leader of their party, making them a potential leader.

As the former Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Mona Keijzer also has government experience, something a potential coalition of insurgents — three of four parties that could be in the government are from outside the political mainstream — may come to rely on.

While talks now grind on towards four months, there’s no reason to believe notoriously slow Dutch politics won’t take longer. The record was 299 days to form a government after an election, and for now the veteran globalist Prime Minister Mark Rutte carries on as the leader of a caretaker administration.