Europe | Where there’s a Wil Ders a way

Geert Wilders struggles towards power in the Netherlands

Other parties are reluctant to join a government with the anti-Muslim populist

Geert Wilders, Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom
Photograph: Getty Images
|AMSTERDAM

THE DUTCH election on November 22nd appeared straightforward: a win for the xenophobic right, with the anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders in the lead. In his newspaper column last week, Ronald Plasterk, a former Labour minister who has turned right, said a government of the PVV and three less radical parties should be simple. It is not, as Mr Plasterk is discovering. The PVV picked him as the verkenner, who sounds out the parties, after its first choice quit over a corruption scandal. It turns out that forming a government including Mr Wilders, long shunned by other parties, is far from easy.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Mr Wilders’s reluctant partners”

Europe December 2nd 2023

From the December 2nd 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Reuse this content

Discover more

French President Macron visits the Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris

Emmanuel Macron shows off the gloriously restored Notre Dame

Five years after it was gutted by fire, the cathedral is more beautiful than ever

An illustration of Ursula von der Leyen bending down in front of a door. On the door is a sign that reads 'Danger! Hard right, keep locked'. In the bottom of the door is a cat flap. An arm is reaching out of the cat flap as she reaches down to take the hand.

Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right

The boss of the European Commission embarks on a second term

Marine Le Pen (L) arrives at the Paris criminal courthouse for her trial on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds

Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets

She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics

The maths of Europe’s military black hole 

It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk

Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south 

Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale

Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats

The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare