Just when some thought the rise of the far-right in world politics was over, the election results in Argentina and the Netherlands surprised many. Both countries had elections in which candidates with far-right policies came out victorious. Argentina has been battling economic problems for a long time now so it may not be that big of a surprise that they elected an unorthodox, unusual candidate. However, how did the Netherlands, a country seen as the stronghold of liberalism by many, elect someone like Geert Wilders?
Wilders started his political career in 1998, for a centrist party before leaving to set up his own Party for Freedom. He is the longest-serving lawmaker in the Dutch parliament. He is famous for campaigning against immigration, being a Euroskeptic, and propagating his anti-Islam rhetoric. The primary reason his party came to an important and powerful position in Dutch politics is the immigration wave to Europe from Middle Eastern countries after 2015, similar to the other far-right parties in Europe. It is also no surprise that Marine Le Pen of France and Viktor Orban of Hungary, both icons of the far-right in European politics currently, were the first to congratulate Wilders for his election victory.
Wilders has based his election campaign on anti-immigration policies. He pledged to stop the “asylum tsunami” because he thinks it causes social problems like the housing shortage and rising health costs. He called for an end to asylum for refugees and free labor movement inside the EU by requiring work visas for some groups. He is critical of climate change activists and thinks that the Netherlands is spending too much effort and time to reduce carbon emissions. He wants to withdraw the Netherlands from the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement. He also called for a “Nexit” to leave the EU.
As fate would have it, Wilders’s path crossed Nashville in 2011, where the Vanderbilt Sociology Professor Richard Lloyd wrote a news article about the speech Wilders gave in a church. The speech sums up what Wilders is about: talking about how Muslim immigrants should stay in their country, Western-Judeo civilization should be protected at all costs, and Islam is the force of evil.
So, what’s ahead for the Netherlands? The Netherlands has a highly fragmented parliamentary system which makes it harder for parties to form governments without forming coalitions with a few other parties. Wilders said that he is ready to make compromises, especially on his strict anti-Islam stance, to form a coalition with other parties. The parties that have the second and third most seats in the parliament had previously ruled out joining forces with Wilders. However, both leaders of these parties stated that they aren’t ruling out anyone to form a coalition with after the election results. There’s also a chance of other more left-leaning parties forming a coalition, leaving Wilders out of government again.
Even though he still may not be the prime minister, the victory of Geert Wilders tells a lot about how Dutch people feel about politics. They feel that the mainstream political parties have betrayed them and caused their country to “fall off,” a similar belief held by most of the far-right populist movements in Europe, South America, and the US. This election result shows that Dutch people are not pleased with the EU’s general policies towards immigration and climate change and do not want their country to adopt these policies. Also, for Wilders, a candidate who is known for his anti-Islam rhetoric and policy suggestions such as banning Islam everywhere in the country, getting elected shows the reaction of Dutch people towards the demographic change the country went through because of dominantly Muslim refugees entering from the Middle East. Well, Geert Wilders just became the latest far-right leader to shock many with an election victory. He may not be the last if the mainstream parties throughout the world don’t come up with better solutions for problems like immigration and climate change.
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