How did we get here? This is a question that many across Europe might be asking themselves when looking at the current health of their democracy. The Netherlands is no exception to this. Just a year ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from The Netherlands released a policy note titled ​​Human Rights – Democracy – the International Legal Order, in which they outlined a strategy for combatting democratic erosion and populism, including plans to strengthen international agreements and protecting human rights (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2023). However, only a few short months later, during their November elections, the far-right Party for Freedom or PVV, led by populist Geert Wilders, won 37 out of 150 seats in the Netherlands parliament, making them the largest party in the Netherlands for the first time in history (“Politico,” 2024). 

In this analysis, our primary focus will be on the role of immigration being used as an accelerant for populism in the Netherlands. As such, exploring how political leaders’ use of anti-immigrant rhetoric has shaped ‘us-vs-them’ narratives among the Dutch people. Additionally, we will examine how the PVV has capitalized on the perceived failure of past majority party leaders to effectively address immigration issues, leading to a sense of distrust and a search for alternative political options among the people. 

To fully understand the aim of this analysis, it is important to understand what populism is. Populism has been defined in a few different ways. Still, for this paper, we will follow the definition set by Cas Mudde (2021), in which he describes populism as a “thin-centered ideology” in which society is separated by “two homogenous and antagonistic groups: the pure people and the corrupt elite” and that the government should follow the will of the people (p. 578). For the first part of the definition, the “thin-centered ideology” essentially refers to populism as an ideology that cannot stand alone; in this case, populists within the Netherlands use anti-immigration to center their populist rhetoric around (Mudde, 2021, p. 578). Then, they use the anger surrounding the immigration crisis to fuel the people vs. elites and even the immigrants themselves.  

As mentioned earlier, the PVV, or Party For Freedom, is a far-right party that pulled off a huge upset, doubling its support from the last general election in 2021 (“Politico,” 2024). The party’s leader, Geert Wilders, was outspoken during the campaign about immigration within the Netherlands. For some context, the Netherlands has faced a growing housing crisis as home prices have skyrocketed, with the average house costing around €450,000, requiring a salary more than double the most common in the Netherlands (Henley, 2024). The rental market has also become inundated with private investors who have raised prices astronomically after the government abolished the Housing and Planning Ministry in the early 2010s (Henley, 2024). This situation has led many young professionals and families to fend for themselves, with many falling into homelessness and even poverty, even though many have stable jobs or careers (Henley, 2024). This crisis has led many in the Netherlands to become rightly upset, and this is exactly the opening someone like Wilders is looking for. Shari Berman (2019), a political science professor at Barnard College, described populism as a “symptom . . . of growing dissatisfaction with democracy” (p. 657) that emerges when governments can’t respond to the needs of the people. This is exactly what Geert Wilders recognized and used to his advantage; Wilders gave the people someone to blame. 

Due to this already underlying discontent surrounding housing and immigration, Wilders then can use a populist ideology to undermine the outgroup or elites. Wilders uses language within his speeches a lot to accomplish this, more specifically by dehumanizing and setting apart immigrants in the Netherlands. He has called them “scum” and said that the people needed to make the Netherlands theirs again and categorized Europe as being Christian (Akbaba, 2018). Wilders was even convicted in 2016 of inciting discrimination for remarks he had made previously against Morrocan immigrants (Darroch, 2016). During the trial, when giving his final remarks, he stated, “Who knows how many individual Muslims want to murder you” (Wilders, 2016). Then, he went on to say that they were not only convicting him but also the millions of citizens who had voted for him in the previous election (Wilders, 2016). Wilders finally concluded the speech by saying that “the battle of the elite against the people will be won by the people” (Wilders, 2016). This is probably one of the best examples of how he uses immigration within his populist rhetoric, as he first demonizes the ‘outgroup’ which are Muslim immigrants in this case, by making them out to be murderers, and then makes himself a part of ‘the people’ by saying he is a representative for all. This goes back to Mudde’s ideas around how populism is a Monist ideology that “‘the people’ as one, with each individual member of ‘the people’ sharing the same key interests and values” (Mudde, 2021, p. 579). Wilders places himself as the spokesperson of ‘the people,’ and immigrants (as Wilders describes them) cannot share the same values and interests, making them and the people (elites) who protect them the other. 

The combination of the growing housing and cost-of-living crisis in the Netherlands, coupled with the growing number of immigrants, has created the perfect storm for Wilders to take control. Immigration is being used as the primary scapegoat, which Wilders can use to deflect policy failures even though he has been a part of the parliament since 1998. He can act as though he is different from the other ‘elites’ and elevate himself to appear as some hero who will save the Netherlands from foreign invaders. Going back to Mudde’s (2021) “thin-centered ideology” (p. 578), the anti-immigration nationalistic stance has given them the perfect “host ideology” (p. 580) in which Wilders can package and deliver his populism more effectively to the public. Overall, without all of these factors combined, Wilders may never have achieved the perfect storm that allowed for the massive victory of the 2023 general election. 

References

Akbaba, S. (2018). Re-narrating Europe in the Face of Populism: An Analysis of the Anti-immigration Discourse of Populist Party Leaders. Insight Turkey, 20(3), 199–218. https://doi.org/10.25253/99.2018203.14

Berman, S. (2019). Populism is a Symptom Rather than a Cause: Democratic Disconnect, the Decline of the Center-Left, and the Rise of Populism in Western Europe. Polity, 51(4), 654–667. https://doi.org/10.1086/705378

Darroch, G. (2016, December 9). Geert Wilders found guilty of inciting discrimination. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/09/geert-wilders-found-guilty-in-hate-speech-trial-but-no-sentence-imposed

Henley, J. (2024, May 6). ‘Everything’s just … on hold’: The Netherlands’ next-level housing crisis. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/06/netherlands-amsterdam-next-level-housing-crisis

Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (2023, June). Policy note: Human rights, democracy and international legal order – Policy note – Government.nl [Beleidsnota]. Ministerie van Algemene Zaken. https://www.government.nl/documents/policy-notes/2023/11/09/policy-note-human-rights-democracy-and-international-legal-order

Mudde, C. (2021). Populism in Europe: An Illiberal Democratic Response to Undemocratic Liberalism (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2019). Government and Opposition, 56(4), 577–597. doi:10.1017/gov.2021.15