Two weeks after his victory in the legislative elections, Dutch populist Geert Wilders is still looking for coalition partners.
  • gerryflap@feddit.nlEnglish
    39·
    11 months ago

    I’m not sure if the writer of this article is familiar with Dutch politics, but nothing unusual is happening. Unlike in the US, where one party wins am absolute majority, we have a system where you need to form a coalition. And this is obviously a whole political game, with parties kinda pretending they don’t want it just to have a better bargaining position. This formation process has taken months for as long as I can remember, and personally I don’t feel like it’s going particularly badly for them.

    I still think the coalition of PVV, NSC, VVD, BBB will happen in some way or another. But the other parties do want the PVV to make clear that some of it’s plans are just not going to happen. Wilders is aware of this, and suddenly seems a lot more reasonable than I’m used to (though obviously still far-right). Ideas like a Nexit or a full immigration stop are just not executable, so they’ll have to be toned down.

    • johan@feddit.nlEnglish
      12·
      11 months ago

      Yeah I’m also Dutch and agree with this 100%. Forming a coalition always takes time. If anything I think they’re actually going quite fast. I was expecting the VVD and NSC to push back more than they are doing.

      Honestly I’m fine with them creating this coalition quickly. The sooner it’s formed the sooner it can collapse.

      • gerryflap@feddit.nlEnglish
        41·
        11 months ago

        Haha yeah exactly. I’m currently hoping that the PVV voters will get annoyed that the solutions aren’t as simple as Wilders always pretends, and then the next election we might return to some slight normalcy again. Or shit will get even weirder, who knows…

        • jochem@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          11 months ago

          This is not how it will go down. PVV might briefly hurt when its government fails, but then they’ll start spewing their far right populist shit again and people will eat it up and vote. In the meantime the whole political conversation has shifted to the right and will nor recover.

          Having PVV form a government is not good. Not on the short term, definitely not on the long term.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
          21·
          11 months ago

          I’m currently hoping that the PVV voters will get annoyed that the solutions aren’t as simple as Wilders always pretends,

          If those supporters are anything like the right wing in other countries, they’ll probably blame the opposition parties for every failure of their own candidate.

    • johan@feddit.nlEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      It would be if it were true, but they’re just working on forming a coalition to create a majority in parliament and that always takes time. As a Dutch person I really don’t agree with the idea that Wilders is having a particularly hard time forming a coalition. If anything it’s going more smoothly than I expected. I think in a month or two we’ll see prime minister Wilders sitting next to Willy (the king).

    • hh93@lemm.eeEnglish
      72·
      11 months ago

      The right wing parties in Europe copy the Trump-Republicans completely even in issues that don’t even make sense here so it only seems logical that they also try to copy the look

      • Pea666@feddit.nlEnglish
        10·
        11 months ago

        He’s had that look long before Trump was involved in politics in an any (‘serious’) capacity.

    • gerryflap@feddit.nlEnglish
      9·
      11 months ago

      He has existed and looked like this long before Trump was a politician. His party was founded in 2006 after he left the VVD, and back then he was already at it.

    • johan@feddit.nlEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      He’s been in parliament since 1998. Longest currently serving parliamentarian I believe.

      Don’t get me wrong I hate everything he stands for, but your comparison with Trump doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and I’m guessing is only based on his appearance.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zipEnglish
      17·
      11 months ago

      He has looked like this for decades, just saying. His weird look is older than any trump political aspirations

    • rosymind@leminal.spaceEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      I confess I didn’t read the article, nor do I know anything about this fellow…but in that picture he looks like Dutch Donald Trump

      • Pea666@feddit.nlEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        I prefer to think of Donald Trump as ‘American Geert Wilders’.

        Wilders been in politics for far longer than the Orange Man has been and he can string together a coherent sentence. His politics are terrible and I hope he fails though.

      • dalekcaan@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        11 months ago

        From my admittedly surface-level understanding of Dutch politics, he is essentially Dutch Donald Trump.

    • johan@feddit.nlEnglish
      71·
      11 months ago

      I dislike Wilders as much as the next guy but criticizing his appearance just seems stupid. There is so much wrong with his words and actions, there’s really no need for discussing his looks.

  • idiomaddict@feddit.deEnglish
    12·
    11 months ago

    I’m pretty sure people are saying he looks like trump because he’s a blond man in a blue suit with a red tie. I don’t really see it otherwise, but I imagine that’s a popular outfit combo for Dutch politicians, given that their flag is also red, white and blue.