The ultra-right’s ballot box victory in the Netherlands

– seen from the standpoint of the proletariat, for comrades at home and abroad –

Old friends backstage in Parliament
To the left: Wilders (PVV), to the right Rutte (VVD)

By Fredo Corvo

The Dutch mass media hailed the preliminary results of the November 22 parliamentary (“Lower House”) elections as a “political landslide”. In doing so, these mouthpieces of capital redeemed their earlier promise that these elections offered “the people” the chance for a “completely different politics.”
But isn’t it more of the same? An ever stronger state, a more divided working class, more wars and intensified exploitation?

Foreign media noticed that Geert Wilders’ ultra-right-wing and populist PVV, which became the largest party in one fell swoop, promised in its program that the Netherlands would leave the EU. In the election campaign, however, the EU played no significant role. If the PVV does indeed enter the government, it will – like Meloni in Italy – stay within the rules of the EU and international treaties. Wilders will thus continue and sharpen Dutch foreign policy from sabotaging a more independent economic, military and political role of Europe vis-à-vis the United States.

The imperialist interests of Dutch capital as a whole dictate economic participation in the EU common market and at the same time an extremely close alignment with U.S. foreign policy. This manifests itself in support of the Ukrainian side of the war there, and even more in support of Israel with, among other things, supply of parts of F16 fighter planes. In diplomatic terms, the incumbent Dutch government Rutte (Rutte is a candidate as Secretary General of NATO) follows American policy toward Israel, and not that of, say, Macron. The PVV’s program unconditionally supports Israel. And like the Republican Party in the US, the PVV promises to stop supporting Ukraine. But paper is patient.

Given the likely seat distribution in parliament,[1] a center-right governing coalition offers more stability than a center-left government. The latter would only just have a majority and include a multitude of small parties:

Center-right:
PVV (37), VVD (24), NSC (20), BBB (7), total 88 of 150 seats Lower House, 30 of 75 Upper House

Center-left:
GL-PvdA (25), VVD (24), NSC (20), D66 (9), total 78 of 150 seats Lower House, 29 of 75 Upper House

BBB’s participation in a center-right government is inevitable, given the 16 of 75 seats it won in the Senate (similar to the US Senate) in the 30-5-2023 provincial elections.

In forming a government, the bourgeois class is of course concerned not only with its stability vis-à-vis the representative bodies, but also and above all with its desired politics of the bourgeois state. In order to push through these politics, the bourgeoisie can also settle for unstable and temporary governments while it is already working on another solution, for example by strengthening one or more opposition parties. Wilders can surely remember how the VVD broke off cooperation in 2012 when the PVV deployed its tacit support for the minority government Rutte I for more concessions. When we see how the VVD promoted the rise of the PVV (a split from the VVD), it becomes clear that Dutch capital wants a center-right government with the ultra-right.

The bourgeoisie in the Netherlands has not lost control of politics[2] , on the contrary. At the latest since 2010, it is no longer just the CDA, but increasingly the VVD that determines who will govern. The VVD has determined its legacy beyond its grave by making immigration the main theme of elections:

• As the ruling party, the VVD deliberately caused an asyle crisis by not enough reception places, even though the cost of rushed medical aid and cruise ships ended up being higher. Procrastination with the dispersal law prolonged the crisis.
• The last Rutte administration chose to fall over the asyl issue, making asyl the theme of the election.
• In the campaign, the VVD saluted the PVV for taking a milder stance on asyl. The VVD no longer excluded the PVV from government participation.

See how the only quality newspaper in the Netherlands analyzes the latter:

“From then on, Wilders rose in the polls. According to political scientist Kristof Jacobs of the University of Nijmegen, research in all countries has proven that clutching at the chest is counterproductive. The VVD’s action was especially beneficial to Wilders.” (Front page of daily newspaper Trouw, 24-11-2023). The reader will understand that we disagree with “counterproductive” on the basis of assumed intentions of political parties. What interests us here is the “real movement” that also continues against the intentions of political actors. Trouw continues: “Right-wing voters are switching to the PVV line more easily than before. Voting for Wilders no longer seems an extreme decision. (…) from the moment Wilders rose, the BBB and NSC began to fall. But those are parties that place themselves explicitly in the political middle.”

Earlier, the GL-PvdA list connection had placed itself in the political middle. This combination had long lost the trust of its traditional constituency among workers by participating in several governments that dismantled the “welfare state,” from unemployment and disability benefits to scholarships, from youth care to retirement homes. Even from oppostion, these bourgeois-left parties defended ‘neo-liberal’ themes. It was only the left populist SP and the right populist PVV that stood up – on paper – to defend the ‘welfare state.’ Wilders invariably began by speaking ‘outrage’ about the demolition of facilities and the lack of housing, only to blame the ‘tsunami’ of asylees. The GL-PvdA campaign emphasized the environment and could not shake off the impression that it is mainly the lowest paid who pay for the cost of the environment while the middle classes pocket the subsidies and state orders.

‘Stupid’ left? No, this stupidity is the way the “real movement” is pushing forward toward an ever stronger state, a more divided working class, more war and intensified exploitation. The leftist street demonstrations in protest against the victory of the PVV, held in Utrecht, Amsterdam and a little bit in Leiden, are a continuation of the contribution to the misery that awaits the working class in particular. Instead of standing up en masse themselves for proletarian interests, wages, benefits, care, these demonstrations show a mockery of workers and the leftist middle class around “democracy” and (social) “peace.” They call against “fascists,” but then are they not themselves national-“socialists” who defend national unity of labor and capital in “their own country,” and imperialist war abroad, on the side of Ukraine or of Russia, on the side of Israel or that of “the Palestinians”?

For a real change of the course to war, it takes a lot more than turning a box red in the voting booth, or walking hand-in-hand around the booth.

Fredo Corvo, 24-11-2023 (translated from Dutch with Deepl.com)

---

[1] For foreign comrades, here is a brief explanation of the otherwise mentioned political parties.

• The VVD is a right-wing liberal party that has governed continuously since 2010 (governments Rutte I to IV). Worn down by this long participation in government, the VVD replaced Rutte with Dilan Yeşilgöz as list leader. The VVD fell from 34 to 24 seats in parliament.
• The CDA is a Christian Democratic party, always party of government except for interruptions in 1998-2002 and 2012-2017. In the last election, the CDA was decimated to 5 seats. Contributing to this were the rise of BBB and NSC.
• GL-PvdA is a list connection of the left-wing Partij van de Arbeid (cf. Labour Party) and the left-wing Green Left party. The campaign was in line with the EU Green-Deal. Due to its “neo-liberal” course and participation in VVD governments, the PvdA has lost a large part of its working-class following to populist parties.
• BBB is a new right-wing populist party representing the interests of agrarian big business.
• NSC is a new right-wing populist party around Pieter Omtzigt who, as a CDA parliamentarian, caused a furor in standing up for the victims of the Dutch childcare benefits scandal.

[2] The ICC claims, “This extreme fragmentation of the political scene in the Netherlands (there are nearly 20 parties in parliament) is an expression of the bourgeoisie’s loss of control over its political apparatus.” Source: “Elections in the Netherlands, A “new momentum” or more chaos and instability? Whoever wins, no solution for the working class! 14-10-2023