Dilan Yesilgöz will succeed Mark Rutte as leader of the VVD. This means that there is a good chance that the Netherlands will have a prime minister in the course of next year for the first time in history who is not only a woman, but also ‘of color’. The mood was euphoric when Barack Obama was sworn in as the first colored president of the United States in 2009. The Netherlands had to wait a little longer for such a breakthrough, but thanks to Yesilgöz’s womanhood, the picture is even more complete. A milestone on the road of emancipation, diversity and inclusiveness.
Is progressive Netherlands dancing on the tables? Nothing is less true. Because Yesilgöz is politically not in the box where refugees, according to some, belong. And so from the progressive angle, the Turkish-Kurdish woman who, at the age of seven, fled the repressive right-wing regime in her homeland with her parents (her father was a left-wing human rights activist) and found freedom in the Netherlands.
“The Netherlands is completely schizophrenic,” said Turkey correspondent Toon Beemsterboer on Twitter about the fact that a ‘Turkish immigrant’ is likely to become party leader ‘of a party that emphatically presents itself with a strict migration policy’. Beemster farmer also wondered how Yesilgöz’s upbringing can be ‘reconciled with her current political’ colour.
The fact that Yesilgöz’s political career started on the left (with the SP, GroenLinks and PvdA) is seriously blamed on her by superiors on Twitter. A column from 20 years ago in which Yesilgöz says that asylum seekers are treated as third-class citizens is currently being shared a lot. The purport of the comment: how inconsistent can you be; shouting this twenty years ago and now trying to contain the flow of asylum seekers.
What bothers me most are the implicit assumptions behind this criticism. To begin with, strong identity thinking. Yesilgöz is an ex-refugee, and apparently that should define her political ideas for the rest of her life. Deviating from the ideas of her parents (if at all), is apparently also reprehensible (while Dutch progressives in the past did not do anything differently and were proud of it).
Having been a refugee herself, she should think as generously as possible about immigration. Also as a politician, also as a minister. And I always think that politicians try to solve the problems and challenges of the Netherlands. These challenges are considerable: there is a dramatic housing shortage, at the same time strong population growth due to immigration and many challenges in the field of climate and the environment. Governing means thinking carefully about this and trying to deal with these partly conflicting developments as best as possible. But according to Yesilgöz critics, that view of politics is apparently not the right one: your views should be determined by your origin and identity, not by reason, reflection and (life) experience.
Advancing insight, learning from mistakes made by yourself and others, and therefore almost by definition think differently about things than twenty years ago. That also seems very healthy to me. But that too runs counter to the assumptions of many Yesilgöz critics. Thinking differently now than twenty years ago (if that is the case at all) is apparently inappropriate.
Most shocking in the Twitter comments on Yesilgöz is the anti-Semitic aspect that sometimes plays up. Yesilgöz is married to a Jewish man. In Turkish-Dutch circles, disgust about this has unfortunately been common for years. Her Kurdish background was already a reason for mistrust for many in that world, but marrying a Jew is unforgivable.
Surprisingly, this sentiment seems to be slowly seeping into the progressive left as well. “Yesilgöz is married to a Jew, but especially to a Zionist. Together they are great supporters of Israel,” says political scientist and journalist Theo Brand on Twitter. Brand has been associated with GroenLinks for years. “We know how the minister and her husband feel about it, extremely and one-sidedly pro-Israel. They defend racism and colonialism.” What Brand bases this on is unclear. I re-read the newspaper interviews with Yesilgöz: not a word about Israel or Zionism. But she has visited the country and the Palestinian territories together with other MPs on an annual trip organized by CIDI. Sad that even that is reason to serve her off.
Whether you agree with her politically or not, that a Turkish-Kurdish refugee can become Prime Minister of the Netherlands should be a celebration of emancipation and diversity for everyone. But because of narrow-minded thinking, unfortunately not for those who insist on it the most.
Aylin Bilic is a headhunter and publicist. She replaces Rosanne Hertzberger in this place.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on July 15, 2023.