The La La Land of the Future?

The La La Land of the Future?

By: Erreh Svaia

“Radical changes will come to the Netherlands. We stand for fundamental choices, and we need to make the right ones.”

Mark Rutte

I remember a conversation with a relative a couple of years ago in Christmas, he has been living in the Netherlands for couple of years, so I asked him about immigration, everyday life, food, business, technology and politics, he told me about small houses, people preferring to walk rather than having a car, the freedom and encouragement to make business, and yes, the growing Muslim population, it was strange for me that I knew about Geert Wilders and he didn´t, but he told me that Dutch people didn’t care a lot for politics, despite won the elections, the country was ok, and people were happy, he even told me that most of the people he knew, weren’t aware of political parties, they filled online surveys and that way determined for whom they were going to vote; With laws against animal abuse, laws encouraging electric cars and walking driving gasoline consume to almost zero in the whole country and less and less prisons, for a while Netherlands looked like the land of the future, but as Plato said: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”, in the Netherlands, it might not be the case, but Dutch people could end up governed by really dangerous people.

So what’s going on with these guys with weird looking hair threatening western democracies with their authoritarian and xenophobic rhetoric? He dyes his hair just like cyber pirate (and Trump´s collaborator) Julian Assange, he combs it in an impossible way, just like art house great surrealist filmmaker David Lynch, he leads a one-man political party (the national populist Party for Freedom) with a parliamentary group not belonging to his party, which allows him full control of it, avoiding also the requirements of a wide political party (as being audited on the origins of his funds (Could Robert Mercer and the Koch Brothers, just as in the case of Trump and Nigel Farage, be behind Wilders?), he looks like the heir to the legacy of iconoclast far right populist Pim Fortuyn, riding the wave of anti-Muslim feelings appearing in the Netherlands after the assassination of popular filmmaker and local legend Theo Van Gogh, he looks more like a rock star with the appeal of a charismatic super villain, carrying a fatwa on his head just like what happened to legendary writer Salman Rushdie, which has forced him to remain out of public sight, but very active on the social media, he equals Islam to Nazism, he demands the closing of local mosques, and promises to clean the Netherlands from what he shockingly calls “Moroccan scum”, in the liberal politics laboratory that the Netherlands are, Geert Wilders appears to have a lot of chances to become the nation’s first minister, but paradoxically, Wilders looks like having zero chances of creating a collation government to unseat prime minister Mark Rutte and his People Party´s for Freedom and Democracy, and carry on with his campaign promises.

What´s up with this Dutch obsession with political parties with the names (Freedom, People´s) that makes it a little bit confusing? What´s up with the intelligence reports of groups like Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear of Russian origin that are detected trying to hack the system in governments office in the Netherlands (along with China and Iran)? Dutch elections in March 15 might not be considered as important within the European Union as Germany´s or as France´s but considering the Netherlands’ reputation as a lab for avant garde politics, first taking the lead with social democracy and then with center right movements, for some, this country could be seen as an indicator of where the European Union could head on politically in the near future, although the Wilders thing seems more as a derivation of events like Brexit or the Trump election, but ideologically it remains an important point for the National Populist global movement, a defeat for Wilders could add up in effect to the defeat of Marine Le Pen in France and to the even more drastic sinking of the AfD in Germany, or in contrast, the triumph of Wilders could add up to Le Pen and to Frauke Perry´s populists and xenophobic troupe in Germany, although with such string contenders, like Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, AfD possibilities seem to slowly be fading away in an unstoppable way.

Considering the fragmented democratic offering in the Netherlands it looks hard for Wilders despite winning the elections, to build a grand coalition in order to become prime minister, after most of the parties ruling out the possibility of aligning with Wilders xenophobic tendencies, it looks like Mark Rutte has more than a chance if he carries on with his coalition integrated with the Labor Party, while the Socialist Party and the Christian Democratic Appeal are still political parties that oppose Rutte´s coalition and that could give Rutte a headache, although it looks hard that they could join Wilders, the signs are clear as Dutch people are demanding a change within their country, they are against the traditional politician (a paradox here considering that Wilders has more than two decades as a politician, moving farther to the right as the years pass by), but they are still completely convinced of taking Wilders´ nationalist xenophobic view of the world and going the Trump route, and it could also be a sign of what is happening within the European Union, where National Populist parties are becoming stronger in Poland, Italy and Hungary, but the heart of it, is still going under a struggle within their democracies with Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and Romania looking for options to revitalize their systems.

Just in case Wilders wins the election, we might stop calling the Netherlands the land of the future, if so, the future doesn’t look so bright for them and for all of us.