ANPPVV leader Geert Wilders
PVV leader Geert Wilders wants to participate in the next cabinet and preferably not in a tolerance construction. He says this in the party leader interview News hour. He is prepared to make concessions, if that happens, also regarding his views on Islam. “There are more important priorities.”
The core point of the PVV has remained unchanged since its founding in 2006: the “Islamization” of the Netherlands must be limited. “The Netherlands is not an Islamic country,” Wilders writes in the foreword to his election manifesto.
But according to Wilders, the Netherlands currently has bigger problems than pushing back Islam. “Islam will never leave our DNA, but the priority now clearly lies with other matters when it comes to the coming period of government.”
Wilders mentions immigration and asylum, health care and social security as examples of issues that are more important to him than his fight against Islam. “If we immediately get to that negotiating table – which I hope for, and which, to be honest, I also assume -, those will be our priorities.”
‘Existential danger’
In 2018, Wilders wanted to ban “certain Islamic expressions” by law. In the private member’s bill, he called Islam an “existential danger” that threatens the Netherlands. His election manifesto still states that he does not want mosques and Islamic schools, that he wants to abolish the Koran and ban the Islamic headscarf in government buildings. “Do we say: if this is not achieved, then we will not govern? The answer to that is: no, I understand that other points are now more important,” said Wilders.
This private member’s bill did not receive a majority, nor did another proposal from 2019 for a ban on dual nationalities of ministers. The Council of State declared both proposals “incompatible with the essential principles of the democratic constitutional state”.
Nieuwsuur previously spoke with Theo Krebber, a former party member of Wilders. He left the party in 2012. He called the PVV’s Islam positions unrealistic at the time:
Former PVV deputy is critical of Wilders’ Islam policy
Wilders emphasized News hour would prefer to govern in a majority coalition with centre-right parties. He names the BBB, VVD, JA21 and NSC as preferred partners, “although I will still have to convince Pieter Omtzigt”.
For the VVD and NSC in particular, the PVV’s anti-rule of law positions are a barrier to governing with the party. When asked whether Wilders is prepared to park those points, he says: “Those are not my words, but I cannot say that you are very far wrong.”
We also asked PVV leader Wilders about his view on the war between Russia and Ukraine and about co-governance in the province of Flevoland. Watch the entire conversation here:
In conversation with PVV party leader Geert Wilders
2023-11-14 22:23:51
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