Dutch Government Collapses After Right-Wing Leader Wilders Walks Out

The Dutch government has collapsed after Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) withdrew from the ruling coalition, leaving the administration without a parliamentary majority and plunging the Netherlands into political uncertainty.

Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent who took office last July, has resigned from his role in the wake of the collapse. The government’s fall after less than a year in power is expected to trigger snap elections, although experts say a vote before October is unlikely and the process of forming a new government could take months.

Without PVV’s 37 seats in the House of Representatives, the coalition government now only has 51 seats out of 150.

Wilders’ party won the previous general election in November 2023 in a shock result, signaling a significant shift to the right in the Netherlands that has been echoed in other elections across Europe over the last year, including in Germany, France, and the European Parliament.

Who is Geert Wilders?

Wilders, 61, is one of the most prominent and polarizing figures in Dutch politics. Originally from Venlo in the south of the Netherlands, Wilders is a seasoned politician, first joining the field in 1990 as an assistant to Frits Bolkestein, a centre-right politician and then-leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), before securing his first elected position in 1997 as a VVD city councillor in Utrecht.

He was elected to the House of Representatives a year later, and has gone on to become the longest serving lawmaker in Dutch politics. In 2004, he left the VVD and formed his own party, later renamed PVV, which he currently leads.

Anti-immigration policy is at the top of Wilders’ agenda. His manifesto during the 2023 general election included a ban on all mosques, Islamic schools, the use of Qurans, and anyone wearing a Hijab entering government buildings in the Netherlands. The manifesto also said the PVV wants to reduce non-Western immigration and implement a “general asylum freeze.”

Wilders’ speeches have been marked by hardline anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric as well: In late 2016, a panel of judges found him guilty of inciting discrimination against Dutch Moroccans over comments he made in a post-election address in 2014; months later, ahead of parliamentary elections in 2017, Wilders described some Moroccans in the Netherlands as “scum.”

As of January 2024, just under 3 million people in the Netherlands were born abroad, 176,000 thousand of whom were born in Morocco. One or both of another 250,000 residents‘ parents were also born in Morocco.

Wilders has been calling for the Dutch government to implement his party’s 10-point plan, which includes slashing migration, turning away asylum seekers, and returning thousands of Syrians back to their home country.

He has also been calling for changes to the “Main Outline Agreement” signed when the government coalition formed last year.

On Tuesday morning, after walking out of a meeting of coalition party leaders, Wilders said in a post on X: “No signature for our asylum plans. No changes to the Main Outline Agreement. PVV leaves the coalition.”

What could happen next?

Wilders’ announcement that his PVV party will be leaving the coalition means that any party members holding ministerial positions in the cabinet will leave, while remaining ministers from three other parties will continue as part of a caretaker cabinet.

After Prime Minister Schoof’s resignation on Tuesday, a general election is likely to be called as the current government will struggle to function with a minority in the House of Representatives.

The ruling coalition comprised four parties: PVV (37 seats), VVD (24 seats), NSC (20 seats), and BBB (7 seats), which together held 88 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. With PVV’s withdrawal, the coalition loses its majority, retaining only 51 seats.

Based on previous election timeframes, Reuters reported that an election before October is unlikely, and forming a new government in the meantime could take months due to the country’s fractured politics.

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, whose party formed part of the government coalition, called for elections “as soon as possible” in a post on X, adding that the Netherlands needs a strong cabinet to “continue to deliver on the right-wing policies that the voters voted for.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Yesilgöz-Zegerius said in a separate post: “Wilders is putting his own interests above the interests of our country by walking away … Everything that could be done, we were already going to do. Everything we had already agreed upon.”