Dutch Right-wing anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders has abandoned his bid to become the Netherlands’ next Prime Minister despite his party’s dramatic election win in November. The Mail has more.
Wilders, who has run on a hard-Right and anti-Islam platform with his Party for Freedom (PVV), wrote in a post on X on Wednesday evening: “I can only become Prime Minister if all parties in the coalition support it. That was not the case.
“I would like a Right-wing cabinet. Less asylum and immigration. Dutch number one. The love for my country and voter is great and more important than my own position.”
Wilders’s announcement came as many in the Netherlands sat and waited for a report on the ongoing coalition talks, amid speculation of a breakthrough that could result in a technocratic Government.
The man overseeing the negotiations between the political parties, Kim Putters, has said the bickering parties were ready to take the “next step” after two days of “good and intense” talks at a country estate.
Dutch party leaders have been tight-lipped during the process but public broadcaster NOS reported that the most likely outcome for Thursday’s report was an “extra-parliamentary” or technocratic cabinet.
It is unclear exactly what form this could take, but it is expected that four party leaders will serve as MPs.
Parties would appoint the members of the cabinet but they could be drawn from ‘ordinary’ party members or even from outside politics, according to media reports.
Wilders stunned the Netherlands and Europe with a convincing victory in November elections that put him in pole position to lead coalition negotiations.
Unlike Britain, France or the United States for example, the Netherlands has a very fractured political system that means no party is strong enough to govern on its own.
The far-Right leader’s Freedom Party (PVV) therefore started talks with the centre-right Liberal VVD party, the BBB farmers’ party, and a new party, the New Social Contract (NSC).
The NSC, led by anti-corruption champion Pieter Omtzigt, was the other new factor in the election, gaining 20 seats and making it indispensable in any coalition.
But almost immediately after PVV’s victory in November, tensions flared between political parties, with the NSC in particular raising questions about the PVV’s far-Right manifesto.
Among other things, the PVV manifesto calls for a ban on mosques, the Koran and Islamic headscarves. It also wants a binding referendum on a ‘Nexit’ – the Netherlands leaving the European Union.
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