PVV

How does the Netherlands react to the surprisingly large election victory of the PVV? In areas where Geert Wilders scored above average, many voters are happy and hope that he will get the chance to fulfill his promises, they told NOS and regional broadcasters.

“The Netherlands is at a point where we do not want to be, and that is due to the destruction policy of the past twelve years. These people are ready for something different,” says a gym owner in the early morning in Westland, South Holland (33). percent for the PVV).

This call for change can also be heard among his customers: “We have to put ourselves at number one,” says an active woman. Her friend says that the Netherlands “needs to cut down on pampering. I have nothing against foreign people who live and work here, but we need to cut down on bringing in a little bit. I’m not at all in favor of ‘just close mosques’ or something, everyone can do it and let him do what he wants, but I think that in the Netherlands we are seen a little too much as the Valhalla.”

Many residents in Volendam (43 percent for PVV) are also happy this morning, they tell NH Nieuws. A visitor to a gas station there finds it “refreshing and new” that it is now Wilders’ turn, and hopes that he will now make an effort “for the Dutch.” Another customer says he is happy because the other political parties “were all against Wilders. Now let him make it happen.”

In Groningen there was this reaction to the PVV’s big victory:

In Ootmarsum, Twente, Pieter Omtzigt’s NSC became the largest party, followed at a considerable distance by the PVV. Many visitors to a weekly market there say they would rather have seen Omtzigt or BBB as the winner, but can live well with a cabinet with Wilders.

“I don’t mind comments like ‘less, less, less’,” says one man, “Wilders sometimes doesn’t say it quite right. But if the NSC can reach an agreement with them, I have no problem with that.”

Many other voters in Dinkelland cite what they see as excessive attention to “the climate event” and the housing crisis as a reason to be happy with Wilders as the biggest. “People are fed up with it,” a woman told NOS. “You need to think more about young people here in the Netherlands itself. People from abroad get all kinds of things, and our own young people cannot find a home.”

In the run-up to the elections, Wilders showed a different face than before, he said he had become ‘mellow’, looking for a desired election victory and a possible coalition.

But many Dutch people with a migration background have not forgotten that in 2009 he wanted to introduce a tax on headscarves (‘kopvoddentax’), and in 2014 after the municipal elections he called for fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands, with his supporters chanting “less, less, less” . Wilders was convicted before the Supreme Court for insulting a group.

“A party that has Islamophobia as its spearhead has become the largest party in the country,” the umbrella organization of Islamic organizations SPIOR said in a press statement. “Wilders has not softened, the Netherlands has hardened.”

Elsewhere in the country, voters are also concerned about a possible cabinet with the PVV:

The Partnership for Moroccan Dutch people receives many signals that its supporters are concerned about a future in the Netherlands. “Many key figures in the neighborhoods, local organizations and community workers are now receiving concerned questions from children and women, along the lines of: what will happen to us now?”

“I think it’s bad, yes. It’s his ideology and way of talking,” says a boy on the street in Rotterdam. “I haven’t forgotten that ‘less, less’ either. People say that’s the past, but it says something about him as a person.”

Social media is now raining comments with fear and gallows humor from Dutch people with a migration background, who say they are worried about their future. Many joke about suitcases that keep getting packed.

A selection of the many jokes that are now being shared on social media:

But there are also people in PVV strongholds who look to the future with concern. “I am deeply ashamed,” says a woman at the market in Ootmarsum. “I think it’s terrible. I work a lot with people of non-Western origin, and they are very sweet, hardworking people. I hope that this is not a sign that living together will no longer work in the future.”