Dutch leader takes Trump-like turn in face of hard-right foes
LONDON— The prime minister of the Netherlands, aiming to head off an insurgent challenge from rightwing populists, stunned many Dutch citizens this week with a strategy that could have come from U.S. President Donald Trump’s playbook.
In an open letter, published online and in full-page newspaper advertisements, the prime minister, Mark Rutte, warned of “something wrong with our country” and said “the silent majority” would no longer tolerate immigrants who come and “abuse our freedom.”
Rutte castigated “anti-social” behaviour such as littering and spitting, then broadened his critique to include people who do not respect gay rights or the equality of women.
While the letter did not explicitly mention Islam, the inference was not lost on anyone, whether or not they support Rutte, who has been prime minister since 2010 and is seeking a third term in an election set for March. Muslims make up about 6 per cent of the population, and there have been sharp debates in the Netherlands for nearly two decades about the role of Muslim immigrants in political and social life.
“The solution is not to tar people with the same brush, or insult or expel whole groups, but to make crystal clear what is normal and what is not normal in our country,” Rutte wrote.
Rutte has led his centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy since 2006, and he has been credited for changes that have helped lift his country — whose economy’s performance is closely tied to the fortunes of neighbouring Germany — out of the doldrums after the 2008-09 economic crisis.
Rutte’s party faces a strong challenge from the far-right Party for Freedom, whose longtime leader, Geert Wilders, has a record of inflammatory remarks and was convicted of inciting discrimination last month for denigrating Moroccans before municipal elections in 2014.
Despite the conviction, Wilders faced no criminal penalties, and voters do not seem to have been turned off by his relentless condemnations of what he calls Islamic extremism. An opinion poll pub- lished Sunday estimated that the Party for Freedom would come in first place, with 33 seats in the 150-seat Parliament, ahead of Rutte’s party, which was projected to win 24 seats.
The letter from Rutte, which was published online Sunday, seemed like an effort to head off that challenge by embracing some of Wilders’ populist messages.
“If you reject our country so fundamentally, I’d prefer you leave,” Rutte wrote in the letter.
The letter stunned members of the Dutch establishment.
“Just not normal,” the newspaper NRC Handelsblad said in an editorial, turning Rutte’s words against him.
It condemned the remarks as simplistic and opportunistic, and it warned that they risked scapegoating Muslims.
Wilders dismissed Rutte’s letter as an act of deceit, declaring in a video posted online: “Stop deceiving your own people. It was you who caused the loss of our freedom, our security and our culture.”
Wilders, who supports shutting down mosques and closing the borders to asylum seekers, wrote on Twitter: “The man of open borders, asylum tsunami, mass immigration, Islamization, lies and deceit.”
Analysts said Rutte’s statement was not only a response to the polls but also part of a broader strategy to reconnect with angry and disaffected voters who have been fleeing mainstream parties. While traditional centre-left and social-democratic voters seem to be most vulnerable to the messages of the far right, centreright parties like Rutte’s are taking heed.
In France and Germany, two other large European democracies with national elections this year, centre-right leaders have tacked right. François Fillon, a former prime minister who will be the centre-right’s standard-bearer in the French election, has promised a strict stance on Islam and immigration.