The Dutch Experiment

Geert Wilders grabs power in an innovative coalition without becoming prime minister

It has been more than six months since the Dutch experienced their political earthquake where Geert Wilders and his right-leaning populist Party for Freedom won the Dutch elections. Now, you are totally correct in asking: What happened after that? Was a new government formed? And how come I don’t see Wilders in the news as the Dutch prime minister, what is going on?

Valid questions and it is not all that easy to explain, but let me give it a shot. The Dutch electoral system does not yield majority party rule and requires a few parties to collaborate and find a way to form a coalition government. The discussions for a new government have been going on for more than half-a-year now and where the Dutch lost hope and feared a return to the ballot box, a few weeks ago a real breakthrough in the formation of a new government was made. It is expected that a centre-right coalition with a new, yet to be named, prime minister will be inaugurated by the King before the end of next month.

The hot potato was of course Wilders’ role. Outspoken, confrontational, with a bad track record (he blew up a coalition in 2012), not to mention what some consider his ‘unconstitutional contributions’ made him a pariah in Dutch politics. Yet being the largest party with an ever growing base of supporters according to the polls, there was no longer any way around him. But he had to be coaxed into a politically palatable arrangement, a marriage of sorts, in a way that would be acceptable to the other three parties in the deal.

The Farmer-Citizen movement is one of the newer parties emerging out of the farmer protests and they were the ones to have the least issues with Wilders. One new centrist party, New Social Contract (NSC), under the rebellious and somewhat nerdy Pieter Omtzigt was the one with the strongest reservations about Wilders. Omtzigt’s key issue was political reform and ensuring that parliament is no longer glued to the wishes of cabinet, a clear separation of powers thus. He got his way during the negotiations by ensuring that Wilders, even though leading the largest party, would not get the job of prime minister. None of the four party leaders would, the new arrangement will be an ‘extra-parliamentary’ cabinet where the government is more or less directed by the parliamentary parties rather than the other way around. This arrangement sort of neutralizes Wilders and gave Omtzigt’s NSC party what it wanted in terms of political renewal. The Free Market Liberal Party under Dilan Yeşilgöz while initially quite reluctant to join the new effort, signed up as the fourth pillar.

Yet although Wilders is outside cabinet, his influence will be significant as a power behind the throne, his party also managed to secure the coveted role of Speaker of Parliament. The plans that were presented outline a pretty hardline approach on immigration and asylum which is a Wilders signature item. The Farmer-Citizen party secured their interests on agriculture and fisheries and you can expect some hard clashes with the European Union on both immigration an farming. However this is what a majority of Dutch want and testing the limits of governance in the European context is a worthwhile experiment. The NSC got its parliamentary renewal whereas Yeşilgöz’s liberals can continue to manage the budget, under pressure as everywhere else, and the economy. Spending on a number of social issues and healthcare is increasing and yes, the new cabinet will start looking on moving the Dutch embassy in Israel back to Jerusalem. In that it will be the first and only EU country to do this and take it from me, this government will not recognize a Palestinian state. Far from it.

But you wonder, who is going to be the prime minister ? This is the tricky part and the search was for someone who was neither a coalition party leader, nor someone too controversial. A strong candidate was found in Ronald Plasterk, a former Labour minister who now writes columns for the conservative Telegraaf newspaper and who was - for whatever reason - close to Wilders. Yet, the start-up enthusiasts among my readers will get a kick out of this, he was implicated in taking the lion’s share of the sale of biotech company which may have not been overly generous in sharing the proceeds with the scientists who developed the underlying technology and wrote the patents. Plasterk was out as a result. The search for a new cabinet leader as well as a team of ministers is on its way and with a bit of luck this can be completed within the next few weeks.

Now, what does it all mean? Wilders is now at the centre of power as right-wing populism is calibrated and mainstreamed into a governing coalition signed off by the more traditional parties and politicians. This appears to be the most right-leaning cabinet the Dutch have ever seen and the opposition left and mainstream media could not contain their outrage and disappointment while stating that this new experiment at governing will fail fast. Yet, if you consider the deal that the Wilders government (even without him as PM it will likely bear his name) have put forward, it is far from a radical turn to the right. It is more a righting of the ship away from the economic excesses of neo-liberalism, addressing the scandals of the previous government while plugging the holes in immigration in a way that a sizeable majority of the Dutch voters can live with. It includes testing the relationship with the EU and experimenting with a political system that had become stuck and unresponsive to citizen needs. It is signature Dutch creativity and consensus building. The opinion polls so far give it a decent endorsement while the left-leaning opposition is lagging and struggling to find a voice that will resonate as a credible counterweight.

The Dutch deserve a new take and we are about to see an innovative project take off soon. It may serve as a model for other western democracies that are struggling to coalesce populism into coherent policies that can find broad based support. And it may last a lot longer than its critics would like to believe.

Photo: Pieter Omtzigt (NSC), Dilan Yeşilgöz (Free Market Liberals), Geert Wilders (Party for Freedom) and Caroline van de Plas (Farmers-Citizen Movement), photo Dutch ANP.