The Netherlands Geert Wilders’ a populist, or just taking politics to a higher level of absurdity

Those watching Geert Wilders performance in this past weeks parliamentary debate which also included questions about the EU Greek bailout, saw the opportunist in him in just about every word he uttered..

Listening to the sarcastic and often illogical arguments coming out of Mr. Wilders his mouth one could only wonder what happened to the Dutch population when they voted in such large numbers for him during the last election. As the saying goes "you get what you vote for" and the Dutch  vertainly got themselves a problem.

Fortunately. there still are some level headed people around in the Netherlands, not scared to oppose Wilders. One of them Nout Wellink, President of the Netherlands Central Bank called Mr Wilders “a false prophet on economic matters” during a talkshow on national TV yesterday evening. This was in reference to when Wilders lashed out in Parliament against bailing out the debt-stricken Greece and said in an interview in the conservative De Telegraaf daily that Greece should quit the euro zone and return to the drachma. He noted that it was totally senseless to help Greece out again.

The past two day of debates in the Dutch Parliament are known as “Accountability Days”. On the third Wednesday of May each year, the government defends its financial policy. Mr Wilders is using the focus on the Netherlands finances to rally support for his anti-Greece crusade.

During the debates Dutch PM Mr Rutte on Thursday accused Wilders, his political partner in Government, of “playing with fire, playing with savings and pensions,” and for engaging in “fact-free politics” driven solely by polling results.

Wilders PVV has a "sweetheart" deal with the Rutte Government in which his party supports the government but has no ministers, and is allowed to disagree with government policy in any area not specifically covered in the coalition agreement.The arrangement allows Mr Wilders to stay in the government while profiting from opposition to its policies.

So  far Geert Wilders has brought to the Dutch political environment  a new level of absurdity and worst of all he seems to be getting away with it.

 Some political insiders are now suggesting that it might be to the benefit of the popular Rutte to drop Geert Wilders from the Government and form a new more reliable Government to include his own VVD, the Christian Democrats, the Labor party and the Democratic D-66.

EU-Digest