With a large PVV, fewer seats are left for other parties to form a stable government. That makes tackling serious problems more difficult.
The elections for the House of Representatives appear to be a neck-and-neck race on Wednesday between not three but no less than four parties, now that Geert Wilders’ PVV has taken a swing after the SBS6 debate and the subsequent poll by Maurice de Hond.
The long-defeated winner Pieter Omtzigt finally announced on Sunday that he wants to become prime minister. It could be a brilliant move, but there is also a chance that some voters have now had enough of their doubts. Many protest votes that first ended up with Omtzigt can therefore end up with Wilders.
This is worrying because it is virtually impossible for other parties to enter a government with a large PVV. He may have put his Islam views on hold for a while, but there are still more than enough extreme plans left that other parties absolutely cannot live with.
This would mean that the Netherlands would completely isolate itself internationally. Wilders wants to leave the EU, stop military aid to Ukraine and he wants to virtually blow up NATO by forcing Turkey out. Given the geopolitical situation, this is extremely dangerous.
The farce around Schiphol last week makes it clear once again that the Netherlands on its own is not even in charge of its own airport. KLM and Schiphol would be severely punished from America and Europe for limiting the number of flights.
The major problems of our time are climate warming, migration flows, insecurity and the consequences of information technology and artificial intelligence. Anyone who thinks that the Netherlands can avoid these problems or solve them on its own is telling a completely unbelievable story. It may seem tempting to pretend that these major problems do not exist, but in reality it is ostrich politics.
Most other parties are probably aware of that. A government led by Prime Minister Wilders is therefore very unlikely. The more seats for the PVV, the fewer seats for other parties. This always makes it more difficult to forge a workable government coalition. This makes tackling numerous problems much more complicated.