Netherlands seems headed to gridlock after far-right won elections

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
25 Nov 2023 11:19
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Of the parties represented in parliament, only the Farmer-Citizen Movement (7 seats) has expressed willingness to partake in the coalition by extremist leader Geert Wilders.

Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders delivers a speech at a meeting of European Nationalists in Koblenz, Germany, Jan. 21, 2017 (AP)

In the wake of a shocking outcome of the general elections, with an extremist party at the lead in the turnout, the Netherlands finds itself at a crossroads as coalition talks kick off, The Guardian reported.

The Freedom Party (PVV) headed by far-right populist leader Geert Wilders won the highest number of seats in parliament (37 seats) significantly leading ahead of the incumbent Prime Minister's Freedom and Democracy party (24 seats).

Election turnout of the 150-seat parliament

Freedom Party (far-right populist party): 37 seats
Greens & Labour (social democrats): 25 seats
Freedom and Democracy (incumbent conservative party): 24 seats
New Social Contract (pro-social welfare): 20 seats
Democrats 66 (liberal party): 9 seats
Farmer–Citizen Movement (agrarian right-wing party): 7 seats
Christian Democrats: 5 seats

Conservatives

The Freedom and Democracy Party, which is a center-right conservative party, has categorically ruled out forming a government with Geert Wilders. However, they hinted at a willingness to lend support on specific parliamentary votes, signaling a nuanced approach to navigating the post-election political landscape.

Liberals

Leader of the Liberal Democrats 66 party (9 seats) warned against Wilders' attempts to rebrand himself as a more moderate figure for the sake of garnering allies for a coalition.

"He can pretend to be Mother Teresa, but he still has a very long way to go," she said.

New Social Contract Party

The New Social Contract party (20) was founded recently as an offshoot of the Christian Democratic Appeal. The leader of the party has not made his position clear yet in regard to forming a coalition with Wilders' extremist party.

Despite criticism of Wilders' extremism, the party leader has previously said he was willing to “step over his own shadow” in talks as he felt politicians elected had the responsibility to form a government.

The leader, however, has expressed pessimism about the possibility of a coalition being established at all.

Last year, it took 298 days for the Dutch parliament to form a ruling coalition. Of the parties represented in parliament, only the Farmer-Citizen Movement (7 seats) has expressed willingness to partake in a coalition with Wilders which leaves him 32 MPs short of an absolute majority.