SHOCK AS GEERT WILDERS – FAR RIGHT ANTI ISLAM MP – WINS DUTCH ELECTION

The stunning election in the Netherlands, of the hard-right, Eurosceptic, anti-Islam, Geert Wilders, has sent shockwaves throughout Europe. Wilders has hovered around the extremist margins of Dutch politics for years, calling for a complete ban on migrants, the proscribing of the Quran, the demolition of Mosques, the withdrawal of all military support for Ukraine and ultimately, for the Netherlands to leave the EU. But now that he looks set to become the next Dutch Prime Minister, provided he can cobble together a workable coalition, the alarm bells are ringing loud in Brussels. Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) won 37 of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament, more than doubling its 2021 election showing. But Wilders’ success is only the latest in a surge of hard right and hard left Eurosceptic victories across the EU.

Buoyed by the success of parties like UKIP, populist parties in Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, Italy, Germany and France are forging inroads into traditional voting patterns. There is a genuine fear emerging that in the looming elections to the European Parliament, due in June next year, centrist parties could lose an absolute majority, making Europe virtually ungovernable. If the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S & D), together with the Greens and the pro-European Renew party, fail to win more than 50% of the popular vote in June, EU unity could break down, potentially rendering the bloc unmanageable.

Already, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has steamed ahead of President Macron’s ruling En Marche in France, with the latest polls putting the arch Eurosceptic and anti-immigrant Le Pen at 28%, while En Marche trails at only 19%. Marine Le Pen was quick to congratulate Geert Wilders, saying that the Netherlands should hold a referendum on their future EU membership “like the Brits did” with Brexit. Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister, the Maverick Viktor Orbán, was next to send his enthusiastic congratulations to Wilders, commenting “The winds of change are here.” The right-wing Orbán has become a problem for the EU who have accused him of curtailing press freedom, weakening judicial independence and undermining multiparty democracy in Hungary. He has acted as a role model for Robert Fico, now in his fourth term as prime minister of neighbouring Slovakia. Although his Smer party is on the centre-left, politically, he shares Orbán’s admiration of Vladimir Putin and has pledged to stop all further aid to Ukraine.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has watered down her ultra-right- wing policies to consolidate her own steely grip on power. Her ‘Brothers of Italy’ populist party is the natural successor of Benito Mussolini’s wartime fascists. It is broadly opposed to immigration and rejects the supremacy of EU laws. In 2020, Meloni was elected president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) bloc, a Eurosceptic group within the European Parliament, first conceived by David Cameron when he was leader of the Conservative opposition.  Meloni nailed her colours firmly to the mast in 2021 when she said in a speech: “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby…no to gender ideology…no to the bureaucrats of Brussels!” Also members of the ECR group in the European Parliament is Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a right-wing Eurosceptic faction that broke away from the traditional centrist Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and has grown to be the third largest party in Germany.

In Spain, Santiago Abascal joined the celebrations of Geert Wilder’s victory. Abascal is leader of the ultra-right-wing, anti-immigrant Vox party, which in the past said that it wants to close the border with Gibraltar to suffocate it economically, so that Spanish sovereignty can be reclaimed. In the July general election in Spain, it looked as if the centrist Partido Popular (PP) would form a coalition with Vox to take over the government, thrusting Abascal into national power. However, they were thwarted by the sitting socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who managed to from a governing minority coalition with the left-wing populist party Podemos, by offering an amnesty to Catalonian separatists who had fled into exile after holding an illegal referendum on independence.

Many political commentators believe that the rise of right and left-wing populist parties poses a real and present danger, just at the exact time when European unity is needed more than ever. Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the threat from China to Taiwan, the possibility of Donald Trump making a comeback in the US, the cost-of-living crisis and burgeoning problems with immigration, all point to the necessity for the EU, UK and all western allies to work closely together to preserve our freedoms and democracy. 

Recent research by academic experts in populism and radicalism in the EU, has revealed how the vote share for Eurosceptic parties has more than doubled in the past twenty years and now stands at around 35%. Some of the ‘hard’ Eurosceptic parties are completely opposed to further economic and political integration and favour total withdrawal from the EU, similar to the UK and Brexit. Others favour ‘softer’, more qualified objections to particular aspects of the European project. But the two combined can seriously undermine EU unity and hand a gift to our enemies like Russia, China and Iran.

The academic experts believe that support for the Eurosceptic populist parties is often based more on their antagonism to mass immigration, rather than being primarily concerned with European integration. The riots that took place in Dublin on 23 November were a case in point, stunning this normally welcoming and friendly nation. Suddenly, Ireland woke up to the fact that it too harbours a far-right sub-culture, just bubbling under the surface, ready to explode into violent revolt at the slightest provocation. The minute news of the stabbings outside a Dublin school began to spread on social media, characterised by agitators as bearing all the hallmarks of Islamist terrorism, the far-right thugs swarmed onto the streets. It was a frightening reminder that populist throngs are closer to home than we think and there are unscrupulous politicians ever ready to exploit them for their own political gain.