The PVV will start the Lower House elections of October with the same message with which it heralded the elections earlier this year: Borders closed for asylum seekers, no more new asylum seekers’ centers and a stop at family reunification.
The reception of asylum seekers is the first chapter in the PVV election program published on Saturday. The ten -point plan that Geert Wilders presented in May is integrally included. That plan led to the fall of the Schoof cabinet in June of this year, because Wilders wanted all ten points to be endorsed by its coalitionmates VVD, NSC and BBB. They refused, after which Wilders withdrew his party. In an accompanying video on social media, Wilders VVD, NSC and BBB blames on Saturday for not wanting to take his plans ‘immediately’.
The PVV also wants to abolish TBS, and also wants the Netherlands to stop development aid. The public broadcaster is no longer financed by the government if it is up to the party; The National Coordinator for Discrimination and Racism should be tackled.
New in the election program is that the PVV writes that there are “only two sexes for the party: male and female.” The party wants an end to the neutral gender marker ‘X’ in passports. The PVV also writes that “bullies must be tackled hard”.
Anti-Islam measures
The election program also includes measures that are specifically aimed at Muslims in the Netherlands, as usual at the PVV. Wilders writes “in democratic resistance” to come up with, among other things, “Islamization.” He calls Islam “without exception the greatest existential threat to our freedom.”
Among other things, the PVV wants a ban on prayer calls of mosques, a ban on wearing a headscarf in government buildings and a ban on Islamic education. In earlier election programs, including those from 2023, the party also argued for a ban on mosques and the Koran. That measure is now missing. “We’re not going to open the entire freezer again,” says Wilders about it on Saturday De Telegraaf.
He thereby refers to the 2023 campaign. Wilders was excluded from government participation for years by almost all political parties because of his radical right -wing positions. After VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz said that her party was willing to work with Wilders, the PVV member had started to lay new accents. His “priorities” had shifted “to other things,” such as care and purchasing power.
He promised to put anti-Islam plans that contrary to the constitution in the ‘refrigerator’ to be able to rule. He moved in three controversial legislative proposals, including the right to vote of people with dual nationality, so that the formation could start. That was enough for VVD, NSC and BBB to form a coalition with him.
Opposition
As the leader of a government party, Wilders had continued to preach his radical views. Even if they went beyond the concessions he had made in the formation. This is how two versions of the PVV were created: one that supplied multi -regional and ministers who carried out the cabinet’s outline agreement; And a version that shouted on social media that had to be done differently.
Wilders accused his coalitionmates several times that they “opposed him”, especially NSC. Wilders now builds on that message. In his election program he writes about “continuous opposition of politicians” and also that “the established order” would “oppose” the PVV.
It is an attempt to reply to reproaches that every coalition party receives in the campaign for new elections: why hadn’t big promises been fulfilled when the party in question was on the buttons? Whether voters will go along in the Wilders frame should be apparent in the coming weeks. His party is still the largest in polls, but the PVV drops and the difference with GroenLinks-PvdA is negligible. Now that the VVD has also said that it would not want to step into a coalition again with the PVV, government participation is virtually impossible for Wilders’ party.