FROM OUR REPORTER
THE HAGUE – Among the windows already decorated for Christmas in the villas in Scheveningen, a beach on the North Sea where Marguerite Duras wrote, one thing stands out: It is full of black dolls wearing black face and a Santa hat. Someone takes a photo of them: they cause discussions. For years, an anti-racist movement in the Netherlands has been fighting to erase Zwarte Piet, Santa Claus’ elf slave – here Sinterklaas – from the tradition, which is reminiscent of colonialism. They protested on Saturday in the village of De Lier, where Sinterklaas was celebrated. And around a hundred “Normaal” residents, who have been Dutch for generations, defended the tradition by throwing eggs and smoke bombs at the activists. Nine arrests.
In this climate, the Netherlands is voting today on the renewal of the lower house and thus the government. The term of Mark Rutte, the longest-serving in recent history, fell after 13 years precisely because of immigration (which the Liberals, Rutte’s party, wanted to crack down on). And the election campaign was based on the issues of immigration and integration, marked in recent days by a rise in the polls of the ultra-sovereignist Geert Wilders, whose program, in short, is the abolition of the Koran.
In the latest polls, four parties have a chance of coming first and thus being tasked with forming a government. “It is an unprecedented situation,” comments journalist Maarten van Aalderen, Italian correspondent for De Telegraaf. In first place are the Liberals, whose leadership Mark Rutte left to his Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius: 17-19%. She would be the first female prime minister in Dutch history.
Then Geert Wilders and his men: 16-18.5%. The others except Yesilgoz-Zegerius ruled out ruling with him. She led the Liberals on a mission to crack down on immigration, something Rutte failed to do, and despite being the daughter of a Kurdish trade unionist and coming to the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1980, she said she could have governed with Wilders. Yesterday, during the traditional final debate in Parliament, live on television, he partially distanced himself from him: “We wouldn’t support him if he won.” The implication: If the Liberals won instead, Wilders would be a valuable ally on the right Page. But “Wilders owes his comeback to her,” explains Joost van Spanjen, professor of political science at Royal Holloway University. “Yesilgoz legitimized him and gave him a presentable face.”
Third in the polls is the emaciated progressive Labor-Green tandem led by former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans: 15-17%, perhaps with some momentum given the undecideds who want to avoid the right-wing party. And finally Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract, a formation of the “extreme center” that until recently dominated election forecasts. It didn’t even exist until July. Mark Rutte’s departure from government – but not from politics: it is no secret that he is the possible successor to Jens Stoltenberg at NATO – has triggered a “big resignation”, and other leaders besides him have chosen not to half of the parliamentarians to run again. And of the 26 competing parties, nine have never been represented in parliament. The new thing that may be moving forward.