Dutch far right to form coalition government

Geert Wilders’ far-right party has agreed to form a coalition government for the first time in the Netherlands, the latest EU country to lurch rightward.

The anti-Islam politician said on Wednesday that he and other party leaders had reached an agreement, though talks continued on who would become prime minister.

“We have an agreement among negotiators,” Wilders told journalists in The Hague.

“We’re going to form a government,” said Pieter Omtzigt, leader of the centrist New Social Contract. “We’ll wait and see who Wilders proposes as a prime minister candidate.”

Wilders had previously said he would drop his claim to the premiership in order to facilitate the formation of a cabinet with his Freedom party (PVV), which won last year’s elections.

Far-right parties have surged in some EU countries in recent years, with Italy’s League, the Finns party in Finland and the Sweden Democrats joining governments and the Alternative for Germany scoring electoral victories at a regional level.

In France, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National is polling first ahead of European parliament elections next month, far in front of the liberal party of President Emmanuel Macron.

But in other countries, most notably in Poland, Spain and Greece, centrist parties have come back or held on to power.

In the Dutch elections in November, Wilders’ party scored a historic win, coming first with 23 per cent of the vote. It is set to form a coalition with the conservative liberal VVD — the party of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte — the NSC, and the populist Farmer-Citizen Movement.

The new government’s programme is likely to include curbs on immigration and higher taxes on the wealthy and on business to fund welfare for the elderly. Wilders said he wanted to “put the Dutch on top” during his fiery election campaign.

In a bid to placate his future coalition partners, Wilders has dropped some of his most radical policies, including a ban on the Koran and mosques. But he is fiercely pro-Israel and his X feed questions whether pro-Palestinian protests in the Netherlands are appropriate for a European nation.

Wilders lives in a safe house and has a police squad protecting him at all times because of death threats. In 2010 he backed Rutte’s minority government in parliament, but pulled out of the deal two years later, triggering snap elections.

Local media have reported that Wilders has asked Ronald Plasterk, a former minister from the Dutch Labour party, to be prime minister but he has refused to comment. The VVD and NSC could find it hard to accept a centre-left politician as premier.

Dilan Yeşilgöz, the VVD leader and outgoing justice minister, will leave the government with all party leaders staying as MPs. They will appoint party members and technocrats.

By convention, the VVD, as the next biggest party, would get the finance ministry and NSC, as third, the foreign ministry. They have already forced Wilders to cut back his spending plans, which included introducing free public transport and abolishing an annual health charge.

Untold: Power for Sale is an upcoming podcast series from the Financial Times looking into Qatargate, an alleged corruption scandal that exposed major flaws in how European democracy works. 

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