Many observers think Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders was crazy to dissolve the government he had spent so many years trying to be a part of. It’s likely that he is crazy – like a fox.
Elite opinion contends that his decision to topple the government was a sign of his and his party’s inability to be serious governing partners. The dispute over immigration policy he contends was the cause for his decision was soluble, they say. His inability to compromise with coalition partners, and the purported weakness of his party’s minister in charge of the immigration portfolio, shows he’s all sound and fury but ultimately unable to act responsibly. Perhaps. But let’s look at the last two years in Dutch politics from his perspective.
The last government was a typical Dutch stitch-up of four parties with widely divergent views. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) was joined by the centrist Christian Democrats (CDA), and two centre-to-centre-left parties, the Christian Union (CU) and Democrats ’66 (D66). VVD precipitated that government’s collapse when it could not reach agreement with its partners over – guess what? – immigration policy.
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