Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders gives up as head of Government | Netherlands

The Dutch far-right Islamophobic leader, Geert Wilders, announced this Wednesday that he will not be Prime Minister of the Netherlands due to the lack of support from the parties with which he was trying to form a coalition.

“I can only become prime minister if all parties in the coalition support me. This was not the case”, said Wilders on the social network X, almost four months after the legislative elections, marked by political negotiations to find a government solution.

On November 23, the Freedom Party (PVV), led by Wilders, won the legislature, with an openly anti-European and Islamophobic speech, although it did not achieve a sufficient majority to govern alone. Dutch media outlets have reported progress in talks to establish a technocratic-based executive.

Political parties are ready to take a “next step” in the formation of a government at the end of two days of “good” and “intense” discussions, the supervisor of negotiations for the formation of an executive, Kim Putters, declared on Tuesday , which is expected to present a crucial report on Thursday.

Wilders surprised the Netherlands and the rest of Europe by obtaining a victory for the extreme right in the last legislative elections for the first time. Since the elections, support for the PVV has only strengthened, according to polls.

The leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) first tried to win a government majority with the liberal VVD party, the agricultural party BBB and the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party, but negotiations reached an impasse last month when the leader of the latter political force, Pieter Omtzigt, abruptly withdrew from the talks, pointing out the dismal state of public finances.

“I would like a right-wing government. Less asylum and immigration. Dutch first,” Wilders wrote in X, adding: “The love for my country and my voters is great and more important than my own position.”

Omtzigt had already expressed concerns about Wilders’ manifesto, an Islamophobic and climate-skeptical text, which advocates a ban on mosques and the Koran, the Islamic holy book, as well as the Netherlands’ exit from the European Union.

In the highly fragmented Dutch political system, where no party is strong enough to govern alone, the announcement of the results usually marks the beginning of months of negotiations.

At the time, the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad described the talks as a “catastrophe waiting to happen”, with “poison, mutual criticism, gossip”.

Kim Putters, a former Labor senator, was then appointed to oversee the dialogue, successfully bringing the leaders of the four rival parties back to the negotiating table.

Mark Rutte remains in the role of prime minister pending the formation of a new government, but at the same time appears as the favorite to lead NATO.