The PVV won, what does that mean...

The PVV (Freedom Party) a far right single person party won the Dutch election, who are they and what now? So the Netherlands is known as a progressive country but few of that is more by condition than by nature. The PVV is a party only containing one member, their leader (Geert Wilders & his foundation also chaired by himself) the platform of Geert Wilders is based on Islamophobia and Xenophobia, Socially Conservative views and economic leftwing policy. Although we see him often voting with his former party the VVD a conservative rightwing liberal party. The landscape in the Netherlands of parties is the following; this may be needed shift left a little depending on from where you are reading:

The PVV is mostly characterized by its Islamophobia & hatred towards those of Marocan decent. But they were also one of the first far right parties on the far right who tried to break the association with national-socialism by being very Zionist and by wanting to replace Article one of the Dutch constitution, the one against discrimination by one that says the Judeo-Christian/humanist culture should be dominant. Now there is not really such a thing as Judeo-Christian but the contradiction on it’s own is that making such a rule in the constitution is far from humanist and an absolute nightmare for any libertarian/anarchist. But also from a humanist point of view.

But how did this happen?

Something you might be wondering is how did this happen, and there is more than one factor. The latest crisis that the last Dutch government fell on was actually on migration, a specific tiny amount of it. The reunification with families from accepted refugees was a discussion. Refugee migration has been the scapegoat the right wing has been using in the Netherlands for a while now. But the Netherlands throughout most of its history has had housing crises for example. European Union/Sjenger law doesn’t make that easier since work here is plenty as well. The government however failed to provide housing for the growing populations. Based on wrong predictions as well as leaving it to the market as well. And Wilders, having almost always been in the opposition with a significant fraction, is also the face for a lot of Dutch people for criticizing the government. His playbook on its own seems to be written for this scenario as well. This doesn’t fully answer the question of how it happened, that is too complicated for just one section. However this is what led too the latest elections. I intend to clarify that in this full post.

Crisis After Crises

Something that leverages his bargain as well is that the Netherlands hasn’t known a time without crises for quite a well. One of the other big winners has to be credit for his work in parliament while I disagree with him a lot. Pieter Omtzigt and his new party NSc Won 20 of the 150 seats, 17 seats less than the PVV. Omtzigt is known for his work on the child benefit scandal a racist plot by the Dutch tax department where there was an actual hunt where people have been innocent but yet blamed for fraud and there was no way out. Every government institution failed until the highest governance court (raad van state) Pieter Omzigt (NSc) former CDA & Renske Lijeten (Socialist Party) digged that all up and can be attributed to exposing great injustice.

But that of course isn’t the first crisis. Groningen had a gas crisis, the economic crises of early 2010’s was going on during the first cabinet of the current Prime Minister (Mark Rutte), the covid crises which was handled very poorly. But that is also next to the Nitrogen crisis which has upset farmers, industrial farmers & the environmental movement on the other side. The 2012 banking crises and the recently exposed fraud law crises which appeared to be too strict and making innocent victims once again. Bad governance is a recurring theme in this. And the former coalition is punished for this out of 150 seats the VVD from PM Rutte of the 34 they used to have before the election they now have 24, D66 out of 24 they now have 9, CDA went from 15 to 5 and the ChristenUnie went from 5 to 3.

Who won then? Clearly PVV & NSc. As well as big win for the united list of social democracy of Groenlinks/PvdA (labour) it’s also worth mentioning that the election had the lower turn up rate in the major cities.

A smaller note, the impact of the Israel-Hamas war and the protest may have also given an incentive to vote PVV to a noticeable amount of the voting population, however this requires more research. We cannot say (yet) how much that has contributed to the success of the PVV.

The election were also during Sinter Klaas which always activates a lot of conservative push back and racists who are trying to preserve the racist black face element as a tradition.

The PVV And Israel

The leader of the party has strong ties to Israel and has lived there for a couple of years in his youth. It seems like he got some what radicalized and has big affinity with the zionist Israel mission to create a ethno zionist state. This is probably also where his mission to dehumanize Islamic and Arab people is coming from.

In January 2021, it was revealed by OpenSecrets that the wealthy American businessman Robert Shillman paid nearly $214,000 in 2017 to help Geert Wilders pay for his successful legal defense in an indictment for hate speech against Muslims in general and Moroccans in particular. Shillman is a member of the boards of The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

This all leave tittle doubt that Wilders is probably getting more backings from pro Israëli donors and that the hate speech and dehumanization against Arabs and the islam is mostly Geert carrying out the Israeli propaganda and agenda. To exterminate and kick out all the Arabs from Palestine and sabotage any sympathy and solidarity for the Palestinians who are now facing a genocide by Israel.

The PVV And Russia

Investigations by Follow the Money and The Investigative Desk have revealed that the Kremlin has been trying to build ties with the PVV since 2013. The party has been targeted by Russian influence campaigns, according to leaked documents.

The documents show, among other things, that:

• Geert Wilders met with a Russian lobbyist in Moscow in 2013. During this meeting,they discussed the possibilities for cooperation between the PVV and the Kremlin.
• The PVV was sponsored by a Russian bank in 2014. The bank paid for a trip byWilders to Moscow.
• The PVV was helped by Russian trolls to spread its message on social media in2016.

Researchers at Follow the Money and The Investigative Desk believe that the documents provide a clear picture of the relationship between the PVV and the Kremlin. They argue that the party is a target of Russian influence campaigns and that Wilders has collaborated with them.

The relationship between the PVV and the Kremlin is controversial. It is worrying that a Dutch political party has such close ties to an authoritarian state like Russia.
The question of whether the relationship between the PVV and the Kremlin poses a threat to Dutch democracy is difficult to answer. However, it is clear that these ties can have a negative impact on trust in politics. And that the Russian Federation is seems to be quite pleased with the Dutch election result in files like MH17 and with the war in Ukraine and the PVV’s both Euroscepticism and Xenofobia Russian state media seems pleased. Russia also may hope for less military spending on the defense of Ukraine.

What now?

Well that is a big if... A couple of possible combinations may happen if other parties are willing to govern with the PVV.
A minority coalition might be one of the options which means more power for the parliament. If that might happen it’s likely this one.

A majority coalition with PVV might also happen but is not the most likely right now.

A majority coalition without the PVV may look likes this:

What does it mean for the libertarian-socialist movement in the Netherlands?

The Antifacist movement has mostly been led by Dutch Anarchist and Socialist initiatives. That also means that the fight against the far right will remain in that respect led by that coalition. During covid the initiative has been taken to make Anti Fascist actions against far right more accessible with success, this will continue. The effort is shared between Anarchist groups and also members of groups like Bij1, Internationale Socialisten & Doorbraak. The fight against the far-right however is not limited to the Netherlands. Our comrades and neighbors in Germany can also use our support with the fight against the AfD (Alternative fur Deutschland) the fight for a world without nations doesn’t stop at the border of one. And must share our knowledge and experience now more than ever, there are lessons to be learned. We also need to keep cooperating as a strong united left on certain issues without losing our identity and positions.

But what we mainly need to do is what we are doing, building alternatives through squatting, social collaboration & mutual aid. We need to show there is an alternative for a system that will constantly fail us as the people. That there is a place to go when you need help or help others, you can create social-spaces and better conditions for everyone, everywhere.