Geert Wilders Government Talks to Run Until February

Right-wing anti-Islamification populist Geert Wilders won a ‘mega victory’ in his national elections in November but there will be no news on him leading a government until early February, leaving the globalist Mark Rutte in power for months more.

Geert Wilders’ Party For Freedom (PVV) emerged out of November’s Dutch national elections as the largest party, but as is typical in European politics without enough seats to govern alone. The Netherlands traditionally experiences extremely long periods of discussion and horse-trading between election day and new governments being formed — the last such period lasted a record 299 days — and this time is likely to be no different, as legacy parties adjust to the new reality that they may have to play second fiddle to a populist they have long shunned as a political untouchable.

Now coalition formation is entering a new phase, however, with likely government partners entering a period of media blackout as they thrash out an agreement on a potential new government behind closed doors. Ronald Plasterk, a populist-left veteran politician invited to orchestrate talks as a neutral outsider who has said he would do the work for the good of the country announced the new phase, saying watchers could now expect to “hear news for the first time at the beginning of February at the latest.”

Talks will continue for the next week and then resume after Christmas, Zoetemeers Dagblad reports.

At present the parties that will enter the talks are Wilders’ PVV, the newly founded right-wing reform-minded New Social Contract (NSC), the establishment globalist-centre-right Forum For Democracy (VVD), and the anti-globalist, pro-food Farmer-Citizen Movement. Between the four, a theoetical government would have 88 seats in the Dutch Parliament, comfortably over the 75 seats needed for a majority.

The fact the VVD is entering this stage of talks may be seen as a development. The party of longstanding Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who remains in power now as a caretaker leader, the VVD went into the election saying they would not work with Wilders, and came out of it fielding new excuses to not cooperate the surprise winner. It was always a possibility this position was a play to maximise their own negotiating position, however.

Geert Wilders, now — dependent on negotiations — first in line to be the next Dutch Prime Minister is a veteran lawmaker with trenchant positions on mass migration and the influence of Islam on Western society. Illustrating the impact of rising levels of Muslim migration to Europe, he has supported and hosted freedom of speech events where participants do things forbidden in Islam.

Underlining the extent to which freedom of expression has been imperiled, Wilders and his allies have been subject to death plots and attempted terror attacks for years. Wilders himself has lived under constant police protection and is often seen wearing a stab vest when he goes out in public.

The center and left in the Netherlands reacted with dismay to Wilders’ election victory, with the veteran Eurocrat leader of the leading left-wing party Frans Timmermans remarking it was now time to “defend democracy” against the results of the election. A spokesman for the Dutch Islamic party Denk said: “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”. Read more at Breitbart London.