-by Toon Janssen
Migration was one of the main topics in the November 2023 election campaigns in the Netherlands. The previous fourth Mark Rutte cabinet fell over the subject and the extreme right-wing populist PVV of Geert Wilders became by far the largest party, with 37 in the 150 seats House, mainly based on the promise of closing borders. Although VVD (liberals, 24 seats), NSC (conservative progressivists, 20 seats) and BBB (right-wing conservative ‘farmers’, 7 seats) also want to limit the number of incoming migrants, the four intended coalition partners can’t agree on the tactics to tackle the problem. Things seem to be stuck on European agreements and treaties that must be kept up to receive refugees. The PVV wants to get rid of it, “but that just isn’t possible,” the others claim. Wilders said in a pissed off way he’s “done with just making concessions, the others must also deliver, and they must do it now.” He mainly pointed with the accusing finger to NSC-party leader Pieter Omtzigt, calling him ‘’a Catholic creep” in a tweet, the medium he’s crazy about.
Recently, controversy arose again about another tweet the other three party leaders were not at all happy with. It all started with a speech in a parliamentary debate in which outgoing State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Eric van der Burg called it “an excellent choice that a Wilders cabinet does not happen.” It was inevitable that the man was punched in the face not long after Wilders, denounced him on Twitter as “a scary man for whom it is time to scratch up, because he turned the Netherlands into one large asylum center.”
It is an undeniable fact that Wilders often creates the necessary commotion with his vicious tweets, especially during this extended period of coalition negotiations. On the one hand he shows a milder version of himself at the negotiating table, a Milder Wilders, coming across as nice and willing to make concessions, while on the other hand, on Twitter in particular, he tells it as it is. “When the person says he thinks it’s fantastic there will not be a Wilders 1- cabinet, then I will firmly distance myself from it,” he complained on Dutch television. “It was inappropriate of this scary guy to say. I don’t care what others think about it, but he’s a pain in the ass for me and I take nothing back from my words.”
Naturally, the intended coalition partners were not happy with this commotion; VVD-leader Dilan Yesilgoz also called the tweet inappropriate: “you shouldn’t just throw out those kinds of qualifications. But I won’t call him on it because we must continue with the formation to ultimately arrive at a right-wing cabinet,” she stated desperately. Mind you, she’s having a difficult time within the ranks of her party, since Van der Burg is an experienced politician on a high number 5 on the list and, he has many followers, including prominent party mastodons. Are we dealing here with a sign of division, a separation of minds, within that party? Van der Burg didn’t seem to be acting on own initiative, there might be unrest…
BBB-leader Van der Plas didn’t call it “my way of tweeting, I don’t negotiate via Twitter, but what Geert Wilders does is up to Geert Wilders himself.” It is common knowledge she desperately wants government participation and is making a lot of compromises in the negotiations for that, “because it all takes too long, this country must urgently be governed.” Shortly afterwards however, Twitter-junkie Wilders retweeted calling for “the whole thing to be blown up, so there will be new elections.” In turn she parried that with “Very special, we need to talk about that at the negotiating table urgently.”
Incidentally Wilders withdrew his retweet shortly afterwards, to which Van der Plas responded with the comment to “get very tired of this tweeting and talking about each other on social media and in talk shows.” Apart from these issues we must take into account that BBB, just showing up in the arena, went down from a sudden 16 seats Senate win on March 15, 2023 to only 7 in the House on November 22, 2023. In short, the party has too little political experience and knowledge in ideal financing, another field the meeting tigers disagree about, apart from migration of course.
Also NSC-leader Omtzigt, not only characterized by Wilders as a “Catholic creep” but also as “a sleeper,” typified Wilders’ verdict about Van der Burg as “certainly inappropriate. But when the feeling to form a government is no longer there, then there obviously will be no further negotiations. Clashing is very normal and healthy, although it would be better not to do it on Twitter.” NSC almost came out of the blue with no participation at all in the 2023 Senate; they just didn’t participate, to 20 seats in the House, within 8 months. Omtzigt is known as a capricious, critical gadfly on different topics, especially in the field of benefit scandals and tax authority abuses. He is comfortable asking probing questions, is very punctual, is great in financial calculations and has a sacred view of the Constitution, in public knowledge much to the chagrin of Wilders. When he was passed over as CDA-party leader (Christian Democrats, from 15 to 5 seats in the House) he started his own party in 2021, and NSC rocketed sky high.
Resentment has more than often arisen after tweets Wilders injected into the world, often based on a similar strategy of opposition. For example, there was this tweet in which he announced to make “zero concessions on asylum, our country is totally packed, my party has already delivered sufficiently, it is now the others turn.” Meanwhile the informants Van Zwol en Dijkgraaf trivialized the irritations about the wave of tweets, “the conversations are largely about content and have no influence on discussions at the table,” Dijkgraaf replied optimistically, when asked whether the information round has a chance of success, “That we won’t know until the last day of the deadline, no later than May 15.” “We are now in a phase in which strong discussions are taking place,” said Van Zwol; “the financial picture is difficult, on asylum and migration the parties are far apart, and there are also major differences in agriculture and nitrogen. But we are making small steps further in the puzzle and parties are getting closer in many fields.”
In the meantime, GroenLinks/PvdA-leader Geert Timmermans (Greens/Social Democrats, 25 House seats) seems to be waking up from his bear sleep. He thinks his party may possibly be prepared, as the May 15 deadline created by the informants themselves approaches, to negotiate about a government with a left-wing signature. On television he suggested the idea that “Although the right-wing parties should end up somewhere, in accordance with the election results, things are starting to turn around for us.” He definitely doesn’t want to get involved with PVV, “since they erode the rule of law. Wilders doesn’t even have a real party behind him, he goes solo, he plays a sweet Milders (!) but he is still a shark who always smells blood, a flamboyant shouting 100,000 things positioning himself as the ultimate Savior of the Fatherland. We need to stop sleepwalking towards autocracy, all signals are red for democracy.” Timmermans visualizes Wilders as GRU, the criminal mastermind ruling over his 36 army of little yellow minions in the popular animated franchise Despicable Me.
According to the former European Commissioner PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB are flogging a dead horse but “in case the liberals or Omtzigt would phone me and want to take a different tack, yes, then we want to sit at the table.” According to the House-faction leader there is an important minus that can throw a spanner in the works, since there may also be new elections even without a formation attempt on the left, “If a parliamentary majority decides this then that is also democracy. In such a scenario elections are expected in any case approximately in the fall”, he alluded. Your DWT correspondent in the Netherlands would not at all be surprised if Wilders, given his despicable behavior, anticipates that. On the one hand the go-getter, nick-name Peroxide Blonde by ‘fans’, is convinced he one day will become prime minister, “If not today then tomorrow, but I certainly will.” On the other hand European elections are approaching and populism needs profiling better than best and social media may help. The worst that can happen to the Netherlands, the country he loves so deeply, “is a cabinet under Gnome Plop,” in his eyes a damn communist, he tweeted. In the meantime the Dutch are in for a long summer…
UPDATE: Hot News This Morning:
Twitter incontinence goes beyond all limits as Wilders tweets he’s going to press charges against Timmermans. You may wonder why?
At a GroenLinks/PvdA party congress yesterday Timmermans orated to his audience: “Dear listeners, our task is bright and clear. We will do all we can to prevent Wilders coming to power.” Wilders interprets this as a threat. “All we can? All? So also violence? I’m going to file a report.” Besides, it was stated in the tweet that journalists received in advance “to not omit something”, niet in Dutch, instead of “not fail to do anything”, niets in Dutch, so the difference is just the letter s. In another tweet Wilders calls on his supporters to help him to put an end to “this life-threatening left-wing incitement.” Timmermans replied rather formally: “He always does this when he is criticized, then he hits hard. My means are always parliamentary. I reject any other suggestion.”
