The broad victory of the far-right PVV party, led by Islamophobe and Eurosceptic Geert Wilders, has taken the Netherlands by surprise, which now faces a puzzle to form a government.. Many parties have ruled out negotiating with the extreme right, but its number of seats prevents it from being cornered into the opposition.
The polls in the days before the elections warned of a rise of the PVV, but continued to place it in second place, after the right-wing liberals VVD, with Dilan Yesilgöz at the head. The electoral result is far from those predictions: the PVV obtains 35 seats, and the VVD 24, placing third in a Parliament of 150 deputies.
In second place is the left-wing bloc formed by the social democrat PvdA and the green GroenLinks, headed by former vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, with 25 seats.. New Social Contract (NSC), party of Christian Democrat Pieter Omtzigt, enters Parliament for the first time with 20 seats.
No party has achieved a sufficient majority to govern alone, but the Netherlands has always been led by coalitions. The current Government, headed by Mark Rutte (VVD), is made up of four parliamentary groups.
The Netherlands now opens a stage of negotiations, and as the PVV has achieved the greatest number of seats, Wilders has the priority to bring these talks to a successful conclusion.. He could achieve a majority with VVD and NSC, which would add 79 seats in a three-party cabinet, but Yesilgöz and Omtzigt have already said that “it will not be easy” and that they are not willing to have him as head of government.
With the support of the BBB farmers' party's 7 seats, an eventual coalition with the centre-right would give Wilders a commanding majority of 86 seats.
Timmermans has already made it clear that he will not govern with the extreme right, so if Wilders fails, the left could try to negotiate a government with the VVD and NSC, in addition to the left-liberals D66, which, despite having suffered a setback electoral, they maintain 10 of their 24 seats. The four would total 79, if the polls are confirmed, which has a margin of error of one seat.
“This is the time to defend democracy and the rule of law,” Timmermans said.
Legal and constitutional framework
In his first speech after learning these results, Wilders asked the other parties to give in to form a government with him and warned that the PVV could no longer be cornered in the opposition because that would be “very undemocratic” and “voters would not accept it.” .
Before the crowd that attended the PVV election night in the coastal neighborhood of Scheveningen, in The Hague, Wilders assured that he was ready to be the leader of “all the Dutch” and find solutions “within the legal and constitutional framework.”
“The hope of the Netherlands is that people take their country back. “That the asylum tsunami is limited, that more money reaches citizens' wallets,” said Wilders, who considered that “the voter has spoken” and the PVV will make sure to “prioritize the interests of the Dutch” in the next legislature. .
Since its founding in 2006, the PVV has proposed a referendum on the Netherlands' exit from the European Union (Nexit), as well as the closure of mosques, the banning of the Koran, and the application of a strict policy against immigration and asylum, points that led multiple parties to exclude him as a partner during the campaign.
However, one week before the elections, Wilders assured that his priority is no longer to avoid the “Islamization” of the Netherlands and that the Dutch “have more important problems”, in a nod to Yesilgöz, who had not ruled him out as a partner.. The PVV soared in the polls after these statements by Wilders.
After casting his vote this Wednesday, Wilders reiterated that promise: “I want to be prime minister of everyone in the Netherlands, regardless of origin or religion.”
Muslim and Moroccan immigrant organizations in the Netherlands showed their concern after the victory of the extreme right. “The anguish and fear are very great,” said Habib el Kadouri, of the Association of Dutch-Moroccans (SMN).
“We can do nothing but cling to the Constitution that mentions equality and religion as rights,” added Muhsin Köktas, from a contact body between the Muslim community and the Dutch government (CMO).