One of Europe’s leading globalists will leave office and his hoped-for replacement, a Green-Left veteran Eurocrat has been soundly defeated in the Dutch elections, triggering an outpouring of grief as veteran anti-Islamification campaigner Geert Wilders soars into first place.
With 99 per cent of votes counted from Wednesday’s national elections in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) is confirmed the largest political force in the country by a considerable margin. More than doubling the number of seats taken since the next election, Wilders even exceeded the highest polls to take 37 seats in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.
Critics now say democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are under siege in the Netherlands as left-wing and centrist-globalist activists adjust to the new reality that many voters rejected their party platforms.
Coalition formation will be tough — it always is after Dutch elections and the signing of agreements to permit the creation of governments has run into the hundreds of days in the past — but it will be difficult for other parties to ignore not only the result of the election, but also fresh polling showing a plurality of Dutch saying they’d rather see a right-wing coalition rather than centrist or left.
GroenLinks-PvdA party’s leader Frans Timmermans speaks at the party headquarters after the announcement of the first exit polls for the Netherlands’ general elections, in Amsterdam on November 22, 2023. (Photo by PHIL NIJHUIS/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
The results have not been received with universal acclaim, however, and some responses to the ascendency of Wilders, a former Breitbart News guest writer who has been under 24-hour police protection for years after a Fatwa was placed on his head for his critique of Islam, are reminiscent to liberal responses to the Brexit and Trump votes of 2016.
As reported by several outlets, a leaked email from Dutch broadcaster BNNVARA reveals the invitation by management for employees to meet today to take time to mourn together, with the communication speaking of a “dark dawn, threat to society”. That the broadcaster’s staff may have an instinctively left-wing bias may not come as a surprise to many in the Netherlands, however, given in 2017 it was the subject of a small scandal over a documentary on the nation’s GreenLeft party which critics said was clearly biased.
The leader of the GreenLeft (GroenLinks, GL) Frans Timmermans, a veteran Eurocrat and enemy of Brexit who was previously considered the main contender to be the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands told his supporters at a downbeat party meeting greeting their worse-than-hoped result of 25 seats that “It is now time to defend democracy and the rule of law”. Wilders’ name was booed when mentioned, and Timmermans spoke on his belief that some people in the Netherlands would now feel like they were unwelcome in the country now Wilders, a long-time critic of Islam’s impact on Western nations, led the nation’s largest party.
DENK party leader Stephan van Baarle speaks after the announcement of the first exit polls for the Netherlands’ general elections, in Amsterdam on November 22, 2023. (Photo by LEX VAN LIESHOUT/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
The Netherlands is relatively unusual in Europe in that it has an electorally successful political party just for Muslims and Islamic issues, Denk (‘Think’). Their leaders also spoke of the accusation made by Timmermans, with state broadcaster NOS reporting the words of their party leader Stephan van Baarle who called the Wilders win a “threat to human rights and the rule of law” which has “led to fear”.
Nevertheless, Baarle vowed to be combative in the face of a potential Wilders government and said Muslims would not be cowed. He told the broadcaster: “We will not be intimidated, from day one we will form a shield against extreme right-wing rhetoric and fight for minorities in this country. Denk is needed more than ever in the fight against racism and discrimination. Combating exclusion and Muslim hatred is in our DNA.”
His chief of press Abdellah Dami was even more strident in his remarks, saying it felt like the Netherlands had just told Muslims they were no longer wanted. Comparing the election result to one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history, Dami told the broadcaster that: “this is not good for democracy… I just said to someone here. I said this feels like my 9/11. I will never forget this evening”.