National Post (National Edition)
New Dutch political star looks very familiar ...
AMSTERDAM • In a venue more used to international pop stars, 5,000 people crowded into a concert hall in Amsterdam last week, beers in hand, for the largest political rally in the Dutch election campaign.
The cheering crowd had gathered to see Jesse Klaver, the 30-year-old leader of the Green Left, a new left-wing party campaigning for social equality and radical environmental change in the Netherlands.
With an amazing resemblance — right down to the curly brown locks — to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and a compelling family story as the son of a Moroccan father and part-Indonesian mother, Klaver has become a beacon for Dutch liberals and his poll numbers have risen dramatically.
He hopes his growing popularity will be a roadblock in the path of Geert Wilders, the yellow-haired right-wing populist who has been leading in the polls with a promise to “de-Islamize the Netherlands,” shut down mosques and hold a referendum on leaving the EU.
Across Europe, people are looking to Wednesday’s elections as the first major test of European populism, with Marine Le Pen contesting the French presidential elections in April and the far-right Alternative for Germany seeking power in the German national elections in September.
While Wilders believes Wednesday will see the first blossoms of a “patriotic spring” of nationalist victories across the continent, Klaver thinks he has the formula to revive the downtrodden left and begin turning back the populist tide.
“These elections are crucial for the Netherlands because I don’t want hate and fear to win, but also for Europe,” Klaver told The Daily Telegraph.
“These are the first elections across the continent, after them come France and Germany. Parties on the left are having a hard time, but you can see that Green Left is growing because we want to do politics in another way.”
As the election enters its final week the polls show a deeply fragmented political landscape, with 28 different parties standing in the election and 14 predicted to win seats.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s ruling centre-right VVD party leads the way at 16 per cent, while Wilders’ Party for Freedom is a close second at 14 per cent. Klaver’s Green Left is vying for third against the Christian Democrats and another liberal party. The Labour party, currently the junior party in the coalition, has collapsed to seventh place.
All of Holland’s mainstream political leaders have promised to keep Wilders out of a coalition government, creating a paradoxical situation where the nationalist could come first or second in a number of seats yet still be unable to grasp real power.
Instead, it may be smaller parties such as Klaver’s that hold the balance of power. In some highly unlikely scenarios, Klaver could even find himself prime minister.
It seems a long way from the time a veteran journalist dismissively called him a “snotty kid” on national television two years ago. The slur turned Klaver into a household name, and soon he was his party’s leader.
The insult, which made headlines around the country, was delivered in a TV show reporting on parliamentary hearings during which Klaver sharply questioned a Dutch banker about bonuses in the financial world.
“It was not only a clash of generations,” Klaver recalled. “It was a clash of cultures.”
Maurice de Hond, a leading Dutch pollster, said: “He’s young, a little bit like Trudeau, although his movement is more like Bernie Sanders’, a grassroots movement of young, optimistic people.”
The crowd at his rally, which included rappers and a “storyteller,” confirm that sentiment. “I’m for a better environment and Jesse Klaver is great,” said Romy Weijler, a 29-year-old from Amsterdam. “He’s a year older than me, and I trust my generation.”
Klaver is among the 12 per cent of the Dutch population who has a parent born in a non-Western country. The son of an immigrant from Morocco said the election is sometimes personal for him, especially when Wilders talks openly about “Moroccan scum.”
“Mostly it doesn’t get in my head, although sometimes it does,” he said. “The only thing I think is that we must ensure he does not win the elections.”
Klaver said he was focused on making the case for “the values that are important to the Netherlands: freedom, tolerance, empathy.”
“I want to say to all the populists: I want my Netherlands back,” he said.
Klaver brushed off comparisons with Canada’s heartthrob prime minister, saying only that he wishes he were as buff as the 45-yearold Trudeau.
“I’m very jealous of Trudeau’s muscles, because I’m not as muscled as he is,” Klaver said with a smile.