Geert Wilders has only had one good news to celebrate in the last week: his electoral victory. After the leader of the Dutch far-right won the elections in the Netherlands, he has only received one setback after another. On Friday, the leader of the liberals, Dilan Yesilgöz, refused to enter a coalition government with her party. And this Monday, the mediator appointed by Wilders’ party, the Party for Freedom (PVV), resigned after being involved in a corruption scandal.
In the Netherlands, the party that wins the elections appoints a mediator who is in charge of establishing contact with the rest of the parties to negotiate a possible government coalition. Wilders’ choice was PVV senator Gom van Strien, a 72-year-old political veteran, who was going to begin talks with the other parties this Monday.
However, the Dutch newspaper NCR has revealed an alleged case of bribery and fraud that directly affects it and that is based on a report from the University of Utrecht, which speaks of a possible diversion of two million euros of public funds to a company. private in which he himself participates.
Wilders has acted quickly and forced the resignation of his chosen one after ensuring that he “knew nothing” about the case, which became known between this Saturday and Monday. He has also appointed a new mediator: Ronald Plasterk, who this time comes from the center-left and is a professor at the university of Amsterdam. The Islamophobic leader has recognized his mistake: “It is not the beginning that he dreamed of to begin talks to form a Government.”
The Dutch press ironically says that the talks to reach a majority in the Dutch Lower House could not have started worse and that Wilders himself is aware of this.
Last week Plasterk wrote an article in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in which he advocated a right-wing coalition between the PVV, the New Social Contract (Christian Democrat, NSC), the Peasant Movement (BBB) ??and the Yesilgöz liberals (VVD). : “What should be done now? That is not a difficult question. Justice must be done to the election results. The winners are the PVV (37 seats), the NSC (20) and the BBB (7), and -certainly loser , but still large – is the VVD (24). Together they have a large majority and many common program points,” he wrote.
This Tuesday morning, the leaders of the Dutch political parties will meet again to launch the first conversations to forge alliances that will give birth to a new Executive.
