The largest political party seen as centre-right in the Netherlands has announced it will not enter a government with Geert Wilders again. Speaking for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), leader Dilan Yeşilgöz called Wilders
an unbelievably untrustworthy partner … [a] quitter” who “puts his own interests above those of the country.
The criticism follows the fall of the Dick Schoof-headed government, in which Wilders enjoyed an unprecedented mandate to fix the migration crisis facing the Netherlands. The walk–out of his Freedom Party (PVV/PfE) prompted the collapse of the government, which had seen ‘centre-right’ parties continually blocking tougher action on asylum.
Prior to these personal attacks, VVD leader Yeşilgöz called the move ‘irresponsible’ while “there is a war on the continent.” This is unlikely to deter Dutch voters, who have given a strong mandate to what would be the strictest asylum policy in the European Union, including returning Syrians to Syria, given the apparent end of the civil war there.
