Wilder Times in the Netherlands
November 24, 2023
I returned home to the Netherlands just in time for the Dutch election results, and in case you haven’t heard, far-right candidate Geert Wilders won. Headlines announce that the results are shocking. But are they?
I find it interesting that the election results came through on Thanksgiving because it was on Thanksgiving of 2016, just after Trump’s win, that I refused to attend Thanksgiving dinner with my Trump supporting relatives, of whom there are many in my family, and I have not spoken to many of them since. The world cried out how shocking it was that Trump won, but I, for one, was not shocked.
When I first moved to the Netherlands, I spent a great deal of time “explaining” how Trump won the election, and how it did not come as a surprise to me. Time after time I was met with the same facile reasoning initially seeded by J.D Vance, then spread to flourish by the media who anointed him the authority on the subject then gave him wall to wall coverage. When I picked up my prescription glasses, my Dutch optometrist followed me out the door to discuss Trump. “But it is only these people with no teeth or education and no economic prospects who have voted for Trump,” he insisted. I heard this again and again. When the students who live in the upstairs apartment were moving in, one of their dads took me aside to discuss how Trump had come to win. “It is because of the people who are uneducated, and have no money,” he said. I gave my stock answer: My dad voted for Trump. He’s educated. He graduated from the Naval Academy and made a solid living. He voted for Trump because he wants abortion to be made illegal. My brother in law voted for Trump. He’s educated, evangelical, and lives in an affluent mostly white suburb and he voted for Trump. My Uncle is extremely wealthy, his yacht is bigger than my house. He voted for Trump because he doesn’t want to pay taxes and because he doesn’t like brown people. “I see,” said my neighbor’s father.
J.D. Vance’s simplistic, facile narrative spread far and wide around the world, and it belied the danger of how quickly fascism is spreading. We saw it when Boris Johnson won on Brexit. People were shocked, shocked I tell you. It was just old people, bamboozled by ads on buses, people explained. Now we see it in the Netherlands. Headlines around the globe state how shocking it is. But is it?
I’m not an academic, a political expert, or a historian, but the signs that this was coming have been pretty damn clear. We saw it in the farmer protests, in Rutte’s government collapse over asylum and immigration, the call to eliminate university programs taught in English, and in everyday exchanges like the one I witnessed when a Dutch neighbor got into a tussle with an expat who was not putting garbage in the correct bins. “Go back to your own country, we don’t want you here!” he screamed at her.
The scary thing is it’s going to get worse. Climate change and war will displace more people and lead to competition for resources and population density. It will become harder to govern and give rise to more authoritarian leadership. Dutch farmers desperate to save their crops feel unjustly limited by the strict EU climate rules that disproportionately affect them as compared to larger countries. My kid is roasting, absolutely cooking in school that goes through mid-July and does not have AC despite a multi-year, multi-million euro renovation and heat waves that have broken records every year we have been here because of the Netherlands strict adherence to climate resolution goals that won’t allow for AC to be installed. The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in the European Union. There are no easy answers, but as my friend Hope said to a MAGA asshole when we were riding the Metro to the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., “I know you say you want change but voting for Trump is like saying I’m tired of eating meatloaf, I’m going to eat a shit sandwich instead.”
The world’s problems are complex and people want easy answers. “The Dutch will be No. 1 again,” Wilders said. “The people must get their nation back.” That’s a message voters glommed onto, (including young voters, so don’t look to them to save us from fascism) resulting in the election of Wilders, who has been described as the Dutch Donald Trump. It will be interesting to see how the formation of a coalition goes, and much has already been written about how Wilder’s anti-immigration platform is largely illegal (now he’s proposed the Netherlands leave the EU, a message backed by Marine Le Pen).
Fascism is growing around the world. My Twitter (X, whatever) feed is full of people claiming they will “never forgive Biden” for how he’s handling Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile, Trump is waiting in the wings. It’s time to stop being shocked.