Just three weeks before elections to the EU parliament, in which the non-establishment Right is expected to do well, there will not be a lot of joy within the EU Commission that the Dutch may be about to have a government dominated by parties of that type, a mere six months after the country’s election (forming governments can take a while in the Hague). Geert Wilders, the leader of the PVV, the party of the populist Right that topped the poll, realized some time ago that, given how controversial a figure he is, it would be impossible to assemble a governing coalition if the PVV insisted on him being prime minister. That sacrifice paid off, as did other concessions made by his party (which is very much his party).
The new government will be a coalition between the PVV, the VVD (a consistently disappointing party of the center Right, which led the last government), and two new parties — the NSC, a, roughly speaking, Christian Democratic party, and the BBB, a farmers’ party formed in reaction to the threat farmers faced from EU eco-regulation. As of the time of writing, it’s still not known who the prime minister will be.
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