We, the Dutch, and Geert Wilders

06-03-10, 18:44

I am going to do this in English, because the people capable of reading Dutch know very well what I think of the man who here in Britain is generally thought to have a serious chance of becoming our next prime minister (Guardian, BBC). Yes, there is serious chance that he will end up conquering twenty-seven or even more seats in parliament, and there is the possibility that his party will be the largest (though, fair to say, we never had a parliament with all parties having less than 30 seats, which is one fifth out of a total of 150). Yet, I personally do not believe the man is going to be our next prime minister, and I think few people, at this point, are believing that.

We are going to have strange elections. Three parties might end up largest: the Christian-Democrats, the Labour Party, and the Freedom Party. Now for both other large parties, the Freedom Party is something of a no-go-area, simply because their voters would not accept a coalition with Wilders, and would run away. The same is true for the Greens party, the Socialist Party and the Liberal Democrats, so that it is completely impossible for Wilders to get involved in a coalition that comes anywhere near 75 seats. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Wilders' ideology of divide and rule has been dominating the debate in Dutch politics for some five years now, and that there is a fair chance of the upcoming elections campaign being dominated by issues about islam and integration, which is not at all helpful for the hard issues that are at stake in the years to come. People will cast their vote based on arguments about the burqa, islamic schools and other completely irrelevant things, without seriously thinking about the future of our national health-care, our school system or our state pension. For me, personally, that is more scary than whether or not Wilders will end up largest. One of the parties that is likely to profit sharply from this is the Liberal Democrats (D66), who will probably conquer a large percentage of the vote because of their leader saying sensible things about Wilders, but who have a socioeconomic agenda that might have far-reaching consequences for our society. Yet, many people will vote for them without even realizing. That, really, is the price to be paid for Geert Wilders. It is not a price of racism, but a price of distortion.

Wilders NL,  D66, 
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