2023-11-23 09:41:52
2023-11-23 17:41 United News Network turned the corner and said that the Dutch Liberal Party won the highest number of seats in the parliamentary reelection, and leader Wilders gave a victory speech. But the Liberal Party line is radical,…
Text/Wang Yingzhi
The Netherlands will hold reelections for the House of Representatives on November 22. According to Ipsos exit polls, the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) is far ahead of the left-wing alliance with 35 seats and will become the largest party in Congress. Wilders, the leader of the Liberal Party, has always held high the banner of freedom that is anti-Muslim, anti-EU, and supports gay rights. He was nicknamed “Dutch Trump” because of his exaggerated words and deeds. But whether Wilders can find a party to form a cabinet together will be the first hurdle in his governance. The Liberal Party’s emergence also brings a new confidence test to the European Union. In the face of the continued growth of immigration flows, how can Europe strike a balance between the values of equality and tolerance and practical challenges?
The “BBC” report pointed out that the Liberal Party’s victory this time was a surprise. In the pre-election polls, the party’s support was ranked third at most, but it soared to first place shortly before the vote, which is also higher than in 2021. The number of seats in the general election has doubled. In July this year, because the Netherlands was unable to cope with the huge number of refugees, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed “asylum system reform” in an attempt to alleviate the refugee crisis by hindering refugee family reunions. However, the coalition government collapsed due to the breakdown of negotiations, Rutte, who had been in power for 13 years, also announced his withdrawal from politics, and the Netherlands held another parliamentary election.
The Liberal Party was founded by far-right leader Geert Wilders. He strongly opposes Islam and attempts to close all mosques. It also plans to ban the Koran and female Muslim headscarves from public institutions. In addition, the Liberal Party also promotes a “Eurosceptic” mentality and plans to follow the example of the United Kingdom in holding a “Brexit referendum.” The party also claimed that it would work hard to reduce the impact of the “refugee tsunami”, save taxpayers’ wallets and create a safer social environment.
Wilders, 60, said after winning the election: “35 seats is a great compliment and a great responsibility… We will govern this country.”
As soon as the polls were announced, far-right leaders from various European countries also called to congratulate them, including current Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former French National Rally (RN) President Marine Le Pen.
In the Dutch parliamentary election, the far-right Freedom Party became the largest party with the highest vote share. The picture shows party chairman Wilders (left) and France…
▌If you fail to form a government, winning the election will be useless.
However, the Dutch political scene is full of multi-party characteristics, and just forming a government will be a major challenge for the Liberal Party. There are 150 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives. There are 26 political parties competing in this election. At least 16 parties have squeezed into the Congress, but no one can obtain a majority of 76 seats. Even if the Liberal Party is far ahead, it is bound to seek cooperation with other parties. So far, the three major parties ranked second to fourth have all stated that they will not join the far-right government led by Wilders, and the Liberal Party may not be able to successfully form a government.
The three major parties include the Green Party-Labor Alliance led by former European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, which won 25 seats; current Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (next) The People’s Liberal Democratic Party (VVD) led by Mr. Jeschigz won 24 seats; and the “New Social Contract Party” (NSC) was only established in August this year, led by former MP Pieter Omtzigt. The new party he led won 20 seats in one fell swoop.
Timmermans once appealed to supporters to protect Dutch democracy and the rule of law. “We will not drive away anyone in the Netherlands, where everyone is equal,” Timmermans said.
The Financial Times reported that the party most willing to join forces with the Liberal Party is the old party Democratic 66 Party (D66). This party is regarded as a social liberal and supports progressive values such as euthanasia, same-sex marriage and the legalization of sex trade. However, currently With only 10 votes, it was still far from enough to form a government with the Liberal Party. Therefore, Wilders may not necessarily become the new leader of the Netherlands. In 1982, the Dutch Labor Party, which won the most seats, failed to form a government, and in the end had to hand over power to a hostile right-wing alliance.
On the other hand, Jeschkez and Omchicht, both leaders of the center-right parties, have expressed their congratulations to the Liberal Party. Although Jeschkez said a week before the election that she would not join the government led by Wilders, she did not rule out the possibility of cooperating with the Liberal Party if she won the election.
Martin Rosema, a political scientist at Lantwent University, believes that the ambiguous signal sent by the VVD is also one of the reasons why the Liberal Party has been able to gain more voters’ favor within a few months. Rosmah said that judging from the precedents in international politics, cooperation with far-right parties is a reasonable option. As Rosmah said:
“We know that if the far right is excluded, it will only get worse.”
The Liberal Party led by the Dutch far-right leader Wilders won 35 seats, but it is still far from the majority of 76 seats. How… In the Dutch parliamentary reelection, the ruling People’s Liberal Democratic Party fell to third place, with only 150 seats. Received 24 seats. The picture shows the party leader…
▌Leading the issue of immigration
In this general election, the immigration issue has always been at the core of the battle between the political parties. As a small country with a population of less than 18 million and an area only slightly larger than Taiwan, the Netherlands has received a large number of immigrants in recent years. The number of net immigrants in 2022 will be as high as 220,000, a 10-fold increase from 20 years ago. The rapidly increasing population has directly affected social issues such as employment opportunities for young people, social welfare, and agricultural environmental regulations.
Therefore, all political parties, including the Liberal Party, regardless of the political spectrum, have proposed bills related to reducing the number of immigrants and revitalizing the economy. Even Yeshiguez, who is a Turkish immigrant himself, is no exception. Omzicht also said that he would reduce the number of immigrants (including immigrants from the EU) to 50,000 per year.
Wilders, known as the “Dutch Trump”, has a very similar political style to former US President Donald Trump. Wilders is full of drama, his campaign language is exaggerated and inflammatory, and he actively uses voters’ dissatisfaction with the current immigration policy to attack the current ruling party VVD.
But when faced with the more practical issue of forming a cabinet, Wilders, who has been in politics for 25 years, also knows how to restrain himself. Before the election, he once said that there are many major issues in Dutch society that are more worrying than banning the spread of Islam. He himself said bluntly that because what the Liberal Party wants to do is unconstitutional, other political parties will not want to be in a government led by it. Work. “We will no longer discuss mosques, the Quran and madrasas.”
But Wilders emphasized that voters have spoken with their votes, and it is time for the political parties to put aside their differences and find common ground. He said: “With a wonderful 35 seats, the Liberal Party will no longer be ignored.”
However, Wilders’ victory will undoubtedly bring a new wave of strong impact to Europe, especially when countries are still struggling to deal with the flow of refugees from Asia and Africa. Wilders’ most high-profile political idea is to hold a referendum on leaving the European Union, a battle for citizens’ opinions that he calls “Nexit.” Although the Netherlands’ overall willingness to leave the European Union is not too high, the Liberal Party’s victory still makes other people suspicious. Europe’s right-wing national leaders felt like a shot in the arm.
Unlike the United Kingdom, which has had Eurosceptic voices from the beginning, the Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union. Since the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, the Economic Community, and the Atomic Energy Community in the 1950s, the Netherlands has been a member of various supranational alliances in Europe. One of the important pioneers and leaders.
The Liberal Party, which won the Dutch election, advocated that the Netherlands should hold a referendum on Brexit. The Netherlands is the earliest founding member of the European Union…
▌The most special far-right person?
It is worth noting that Wilders also has a very unique background among the far-right leaders in the current international political arena. Especially on gender issues, he is very different from former US President Trump. Trump tends to take conservative stances on the social level, such as opposing abortion, same-sex marriage and other gender pluralism, and has often been involved in scandals that demean women.
On the contrary, Wilders attracted political attention as early as the early 2000s for holding high the banner of gay equality. The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. Although more than 90% of people now support same-sex marriage, at that time there was still no consensus on gay rights and there were endless arguments in society. In 2002, Pim Fortuyn, a well-known openly gay politician, was assassinated by left-wingers for his radical remarks criticizing Islam. Supporting gay rights and “defending Dutch values” were equated with anti-Islam. Wilders Rising in such a wave of contradictions.
Wilders has publicly stated that he and the conservative far-right in other countries “are not on the same journey.” He denies outside criticism of his racism, claiming that he does not discriminate against Muslims, but only hates Islam’s intolerance of gender equality and dissent. Wilders has claimed in the past that the Liberal Party has always believed in higher-level ideologies such as equality and freedom, and calls itself the “Guardian of Gays”, which is why it can cooperate with the progressive D66. Wilders has also received death threats for his anti-Islamic extreme remarks and still lives in a heavily guarded safe house.
However, the Liberal Party is not fully integrated into progressive thinking in the area of gender. Gay Times, which focuses on the LGBTQIA community, pointed out that although the Liberal Party still attaches great importance to protecting gay rights and uses it as an argumentative tool to ban the spread of Islam, the party does not support the rights of the transgender community. Not only did it say that Dutch schoolchildren They are being indoctrinated into the idea of ”gender madness” and are even trying to change the current transgender-friendly policies.
According to the 2023 “Rainbow Europe” of the International Gay and Lesbian Federation (ILGA), the Netherlands ranks 14th among 49 countries in Europe for gender diversity rights. The reason why it is not as high as in previous years is due to the lack of regulation of hate speech. , and still allows gender assignment surgeries to be performed on minor intersex people (commonly known as hermaphrodites or intersex people), using medical means to forcibly change intersex children into male or female.
The Netherlands legalized same-sex marriage in 2001, with 90% of supporters now, but after a lot of debate and ideas… Turning the Corner
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