The Divided Dutch Right
Or how an opportunity to effect change is being squandered
It was in the beginning of this year that The New Republic jumped on the bandwagon of classifying everything that happened in The Netherlands since the Fortuyn and Van Gogh murders as solid evidence of the small nation abandoning its left-liberal tolerance and 'turning right'.
There were many other articles in the international media that suggested that the Dutch had lost their appetite for good old fashioned left-of-center political correctness and were voting en groupe for neo-con inspired change in the wake of failed integration policies. It was a pity that no one bothered to look at the polls and notice how the fragile right-of-center coalition was pounded by a clueless and hard to please electorate, ready to vote for a return to the good old days.
Well, they will have that chance three months from now. The current administration had to hand in its mandate following its disastrous handling of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali affair. Ali, the newest addition to the American Enterprise Institute's team of scholars, was cruelly offered up for political expediency by her fellow party member and hardline immigration minister Rita Verdonk. This incredible action - Verdonk and Ali being ideological soulmates when it comes to taking on Muslim fundamentalism - was simply too unpalatable for the small liberal party that held the balance of parliamentary power. When Verdonk refused to step down they pulled the rug away from Prime-Minister Balkenende's coalition and opened up the way for fresh elections, scheduled for late November.
The latest polls show that the Dutch Labour party, the Green Left and the old-style hardline leftist Socialist Party will do very well if an election were held today, possibly together grabbing a parliamentary majority. And the right which was handed the Fortuyn legacy - boosted by the Van Gogh murder - on a silver platter has miraculously chosen to deconstruct itself. An odd development given the right's success in taking a tough stance on immigration, something the voters apparently wanted, and managing one of Europe's better performing economies.
The traditional standard bearer of free-market policies and a hawkish foreign policy, the VVD, appears to be split after an intense internal leadership struggle between "iron" Rita Verdonk and the more centrist Mark Rutte who won the race. The VVD had already suffered after it booted out Geert Wilders, its maverick member of parliament who formed his own party after his views on Turkey entering the European Union were no longer reconcilable with VVD and formal government policy. Wilders who given his frank commentary about radical Islam is living under round the clock security will enter the elections with his own Party for Freedom, but according to the latest numbers will not gain more than a paltry 2% of the popular vote.
The remnants of Fortuyn's party, List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) in the meantime has split with one of its key members - and also a former immigration minister- Hilbrand Nawijn who has formed the Party for The Netherlands. I leave it to your imagination where his platform of anti-Muslim policies and free public transportation will get him in the polls, but far it is not. The only potential star on the right is former Fortuyn associate and Rotterdam city politician Marco Pastors, the one to credibly claim the old master's mantle with a platform based on classical liberal values and an uncompromising attitude towards the nation's ingrained politically correct culture. Yet, Pastors has been late to come out of the gate with his new party - One Netherlands - a fact corroborated by the poor numbers for his venture in the latest poll.
Of course, various commentators have pointed out that the divided right should have worked harder to align their interests and combine forces under one banner. It seems that personalities and political nuances however have for now kept them separated without any real prospects for cooperation. Still, ideologically they may not be that far apart, and the various groupings together or under the banner of a reformed VVD could be able to offer the Dutch voter a realistic alternative to the traditional left-of-center option where the Dutch have been stuck for most of the last four decades.
Yes, it is early days and the left's quest to reclaim lost ground since its electoral setbacks in 2002 may be peaking a little bit too early. However their sustained strength over a fractured opponent makes one wonder if the Dutch really ever turned to the right.
This article originally appeared on Pajamas Media on August 31, 2006
