Newly-minted Prime Minister Dick Schoof faced a baptism of fire at the opening of the Dutch parliament over remarks by two cabinet ministers about a conspiracy theory with neo-Nazi roots.

Schoof was inaugurated on Tuesday with pomp and fanfare to head a coalition government dominated by far-right leader Geert Wilders and his anti-immigration Freedom Party, the PVV.

Two days later, the new Dutch premier’s first lower house debate spiralled into chaos when not only the opposition, but Wilders himself aimed his arrows at Schoof, his own choice for the top job.

No amount of preparation could ready Schoof, a veteran career civil servant, for his first appearance within the bear pit of Dutch parliamentary politics, marked by interruptions and sniping on X, formally known as Twitter.

At the centre of the controversy are two cabinet ministers from Wilders’ PVV: new Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber and Foreign Trade and Development Aid Minister Reinette Klever.

Both have in the past spoken about the so-called “omvolking” — the Dutch term for the “great replacement theory” that supposes that Europe’s white population is being deliberately replaced by immigrants.

While both ministers have “distanced themselves” from the term, they maintained that there was a “worrying demographic development” in the Netherlands, where the ruling coalition now wants to implement the “strictest immigration policy ever.”

Isolated

But Schoof reiterated during the debate: “I repeat, this government is against discrimination, racism and exclusion.”

The Dutch left-wing opposition accused Schoof of tolerating those who have made “conspiratorial” and “racist” remarks — which also included criticising the wearing of veils — within his ministerial team.

Wilders himself then launched a virulent attack on Schoof for not defending his ministers for “being made out as racists”, calling Schoof’s response “weak.”

“The prime minister should immediately distance himself from it. I will not accept anything less!” Wilders said on X.

Schoof, not aligned to any party and who has been appointed by a four-party coalition of the PVV, the Liberal VVD, the farmer-friendly BBB and the new centre-right NSC, appeared isolated on all sides.

Leiden politics professor Ruud Koole told AFP the first debate was a litmus test to see how far the PVV’s junior coalition parties would go to normalise extreme views within Wilders’ party.

“It turns out very far,” he said.

“The statements made in the past by PVV ministers about the ‘great replacement’ have been swept under the carpet,” Koole said.

“All three the other coalition parties have accepted to have the ‘great replacement’ rephrased as a “demographic phenomenon”,’ he said.

‘Disgusting’

Wilders, who claimed a stunning victory in last year’s parliamentary elections, continues to lead his party as an MP.

He gave up on ambitions to become Dutch prime minister after other coalition parties threatened to withdraw because of his anti-Islam and eurosceptic views.

Wilders said he wanted to limit immigration to the Netherlands “as much as possible”, but he has indeed called the “great replacement” theory “disgusting”.

But during the debate, he aimed his barbs at Schoof for not defending those ministers made out by the left, according to Wilders, as “racist.”

Wilders’s outburst was immediately criticised by the junior coalition partner leaders of the VVD and the NSC on X.

“I was particularly struck by how defensive Wilders was and how he tried in a frantic and authoritarian way to deny the racism that his party clearly propagates in various ways,” said Sarah Bracke, sociology professor at the University of Amsterdam.

“It is intellectually and politically untenable to continue to deny that the ideas at the heart of the PVV, and also of this government, are not racist, or that it would be enough to no longer mention the term ‘great replacement’ to make extremist and racist ideas disappear,” she told AFP.

“If Mr Wilders continues to criticise his prime minister, this could lead to Schoof’s resignation,” added Leiden University’s Koole.

“But we are not there yet,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The new Dutch government poses with Dutch King Willem-Alexander on the steps of royal palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, Netherlands, on July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Netherlands has a different Prime Minister for the first time in 14 years as Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in the country’s new government Tuesday, more than seven months after elections dominated by a far-right, anti-Islam party.

Dick Schoof, former head of the Dutch intelligence agency and counterterrorism office, signed the official royal decree at Huis Ten Bosch Palace, saying he “declared and promised” to uphold his duties as the country’s prime minister. The 67-year-old was formally installed alongside 15 other ministers who make up the country’s right-leaning coalition.

The anti-immigration party of firebrand Geert Wilders won the largest share of seats in elections last year but it took 223 days to form a government.

The four parties in the coalition are Wilders’ Party for Freedom, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the populist Farmer Citizen Movement and the centrist New Social Contract party.

The formal agreement creating the new coalition, titled “Hope, courage and pride,” introduces strict measures on asylum-seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country.

Opposition from other coalition partners prevented the controversial Wilders from taking the prime minister’s job. During the monthslong negotiations, he backpedaled on several of his most extreme views, including withdrawing draft legislation that would have banned mosques, Islamic schools and the Quran.

ALSO READ: Far-right turn: On Geert Wilders’ win in the Netherlands

For the first time since World War II, the Netherlands is now led by a prime minister who is not aligned with a political party. Before serving as chief of the country’s top intelligence agency, Mr. Schoof was previously the counterterror chief and the head of the country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service.

During the lengthy talks, his name had not been circulated as a possible prime minister and national newspaper the Telegraaf reported that Mr. Schoof was the fifth choice for the top spot. Mr. Wilders’ first pick, Ronald Plasterk, was forced to withdraw from consideration after allegations of his involvement in a medical patent fraud came to light.

The other government ministers were sworn in Tuesday according to seniority of their departments. One minister, Femke Wiersma who will head the agriculture portfolio, made her declaration in Frisian — the country’s second official language alongside Dutch.

Although the November elections were widely seen as a win for the far right, political youth organisations are already pushing back on the ambitions of the new government. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, youth groups from six parties, including two of the coalition partners, called for a softening on asylum plans.

“Although the influx must be limited, it is of great importance that we receive people here fairly and with dignity,” Eva Brandemann, chairperson of the youth wing of the New Social Contract, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

Her counterpart in Mr. Rutte’s party, which brought down the government last summer over concerns about the number of family reunifications for refugees, told NOS that problems stemmed from administration, not migration. “The impression after all those conversations is that there is not so much an asylum crisis but a reception crisis,” Mauk Bresser, the chair of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy youth organisation said.

The new government will now spend the summer firming their coalition agreement into a governing plan.

 Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early on May 16. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early on May 16 that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who will become Prime Minister.

The “Hope, courage and pride” agreement introduces strict measures on asylum seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country.

“Deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly,” the 26-page document says.

Mr. Wilders cried victory on what he called “a historic day,” claiming he had made sure the three other coalition parties, including the one of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, had accepted the core of his programme.

“The strictest asylum policy ever,” Mr. Wilders exulted. “The Dutch back at No.1,” he added, insisting his campaign theme how immigrants and asylum seekers had all too often been granted preferential treatment over others.

With hard right and populist parties now part of or leading a half dozen Governments in the 27-nation bloc, they appear positioned to make gains in the June 6-9 election for the European Parliament.

Mr. Wilders had already reluctantly acknowledged that he will not succeed Rutte at the country’s helm. The parties still have to agree on a Prime Minister, who is expected to be a technocrat from outside the party structures.

Speculation has centered on Mr. Ronald Plasterk, from the Labor Party, who shot back to prominence this year when he became the first “scout” to hold talks with political leaders about possible coalitions.

The deal said the next Government will continue with existing plans to combat climate change, including continuing to pay for a climate change fund established last year. But the Farmers Citizens Movement is part of the coalition and the deal includes soothing language and concessions to farmers that have blocked cities with tractors during disruptive protests.

Other points in the agreement include increasing social housing, stricter sentences for serious crimes and capping property taxes.

The group intends to continue supporting Ukraine and wants to enshrine the NATO requirement to 2% of gross domestic product on defense into law.

The parties will explain the program to parliament on May 16, though a debate will not be held on the agreement until next week.

The Hague:

Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they were putting two Pakistani nationals on trial for incitement to murder anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, asking Islamabad for legal help in the matter.

Judges in September last year sentenced Pakistani cricketer Khalid Latif to 12 years behind bars for urging people to murder Wilders after the firebrand lawmaker sought to arrange a competition for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The Public Prosecution Service said it was prosecuting two Pakistani nationals, one a religious leader, 55 and one a political leader, 29, “who have called upon their following to murder a Dutch member of Parliament.”

“This was done both during meetings and on social media through video and text messages,” it said in a statement.

The religious leader allegedly called for Wilders’ murder as his followers would be “rewarded in the afterlife”, while the political leader said since Latif’s conviction it was “up to his own followers to carry out the task”.

The two men are set to go on trial at a highly-secure courthouse near Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on September 2.

Dutch authorities have asked Islamabad for legal assistance to question the suspects and serve summonses to appear in court.

However, no treaty exists with Pakistan for mutual legal assistance and it seems unlikely the two men will ever appear in the dock.

Geert Wilders posted two names on X, formerly Twitter, but prosecutors did not give the suspects’ names because of privacy reasons.

The names could not independently be verified by AFP.

“I hope they will be extradited, convicted and jailed!” Wilders said.    

Dutch authorities have sought in vain to question Latif over the case and requested legal assistance from Pakistan, also to no avail.

Wilders cancelled the cartoon contest after protests broke out in Pakistan and he was inundated with death threats. He has been under 24-hour state protection since 2004.

In the Netherlands, the plan to stage the contest was criticised widely with politicians, local media and ordinary citizens slamming the idea as needlessly antagonising Muslims.

But the call to kill Wilders appeared to resonate, with a Pakistani man sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 for plotting his assassination in the wake of the cancelled contest.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)