Geert Wilders: effort to form Netherlands
coalition not off to ‘dream start’
Blow to far-right leader as man chosen to oversee
coalition talks quits over fraud claims
Europe live
– latest updates
Senay
Boztas in Amsterdam
Mon 27 Nov
2023 17.03 CET
The
far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has admitted that he was not off to a
“dream start” in his attempts to form a government, after a man he appointed to
oversee coalition talks quit over fraud allegations before getting started in
the role.
Wilders and
his Party for Freedom (PVV) look to have won almost a quarter of seats in the
150-seat Dutch parliament in last Wednesday’s elections, about 10 seats more
than predicted.
As leader
of the biggest party and as is customary in Dutch politics, Wilders had last
week engaged the PVV senator Gom van Strien to act as his choice of “scout” – a
person tasked with shuttling between party leaders to clinch a deal.
However,
allegations emerged in the NRC Handelsblad newspaper over the weekend that Van
Strien was one of several people accused by Utrecht Holdings of “irregular”
handling of commercial spin-offs from Utrecht University and University Medical
Center Utrecht. While Van Strien has rejected any questions over his integrity
and denied any allegation of fraud, he withdrew from the political process on
Monday morning.
“This
weekend, articles appeared in the media about work in my past, questioning my
integrity,” he said in a statement published by the Dutch parliament. “In my
view, the disturbance around this and my preparation of a response to it do not
relate to my current work as a scout. This is why I have informed Geert Wilders
and the chairman of parliament that I will resign my duties as scout with
immediate effect.”
Dutch
coalition processes typically take months and it is not unusual for them to be
interrupted by party politics. Wilders has said he will look for a new scout
“with more distance from politics” to attend the first meetings, which will be
with him, the GreenLeft/Labour leader, Frans Timmermans, the VVD leader, Dilan
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, and the head of the liberal democratic D66, Rob Jetten.
Wilders,
who has said on X that he is determined to be “prime minister of this beautiful
country”, admitted to Dutch media that the Van Strien debacle was “not my dream
start” and criticised him for not having informed him of the legal situation.
“Otherwise, you know that it will just go on and you have to spend the whole
week denying or debunking it,” Wilders said.
Although a
prospective government could be made from the PVV, the rightwing VVD (current
prime minister Mark Rutte’s party), the New Social Contract party led by Pieter
Omtzigt, and the Dutch Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), led by Caroline van der
Plas, only the BBB has given a strong nod.
Having
previously excluded Wilders, Omtzigt has said the result must be respected and
his party would “take responsibility”. Yeşilgöz-Zegerius has already told media
that she would not serve in a government under Wilders but would be willing to
work in a confidence and supply arrangement.
Raoul du
Pré, the chief political editor of the Volkskrant, said such early statements
were part of the typical chess game of formation in this proportionally
representative and splintered political landscape. “The party that loses always
says: ‘We are going to sit out a turn,’” he said.
Only if
Wilders fails to make a coalition could another party such as Timmermans’
GreenLeft/Labour be invited to try. Although the largest party typically
provides the prime minister, this is only a convention.
Meanwhile,
economists from the ING pointed out that, based on the manifestos of the four
rightwing parties – despite that fact that they all want strict limits on
immigration – they would create a “considerably expansionary” economy that
would “result in more demand for foreign workers”.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário