Geert Wilders says he will renounce the premiership of the Netherlands

Geert Wilders, the far-right politician who won a shock victory in the last Dutch election, said on Wednesday that he was willing to relinquish the premiership of the Netherlands – for now – in an effort to improve the chances of the formation of the right. -wing coalition.

Long anathema to mainstream politicians, Wilders has been at the center of coalition negotiations in the months since his decisive election victory in November. Although it is now highly unlikely that he will become the next prime minister, other parties have broken a taboo that has existed since 2012: they will have to find a way to govern together with Wilders’ Party for Freedom in some form.

“I can only become Prime Minister if ALL parties in the coalition support this. That was not the case,” he wrote on social media. He added that he wanted a right-wing cabinet and less immigration.

“The love for my country and my voter is great,” he wrote, “and more important than my own position.”

Wilders’ move increases the chance of a right-wing coalition in which his party will play a role, something that was long unthinkable in the Netherlands, which is considered one of the most liberal democracies in Western Europe.

The alliance is unlikely to be a traditional majority coalition, where the country’s largest parties form a majority in the House of Representatives, agree on a coalition arrangement and then govern together.

Mr Wilders has been negotiating a way to form a government with the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, a centre-right party that has ruled for the past thirteen years; the Farmer Citizen Movement, a populist pro-farmer party; and New Social Contract, a new centrist party.

Together these four parties have 88 seats in the House of Representatives, a comfortable majority, but the party leaders could not agree on a way of working together under the leadership of Mr Wilders.

The four parties have indicated that they are prepared to work together in a different form: a cabinet with political outsiders. By choosing this construction, instead of a traditional majority coalition, the aim is to create more distance between the cabinet and the House of Representatives, says Simon Otjes, assistant professor of Dutch politics at Leiden University.

But somehow the other parties in the coalition will have to find a way to work with Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party.

It is still too early to know who will be the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands, but it could be an experienced former politician who could put forward a right-wing agenda. Mr Wilders will continue to act as leader of his party in the House of Representatives.

Mr Wilders’ decision is a gesture towards the other parties, says Janka Stoker, professor of leadership and organizational change at the University of Groningen. “You could call it a gesture of leadership.”

Mr Wilders convincingly won the national elections in November. Nearly a quarter of Dutch voters chose his party, which won 37 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, a large number by the standards of a Dutch party system that relies on consensus and coalition building.

Mr Wilders, who founded his Party for Freedom in 2006, is one of the best-known politicians in the Netherlands and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, where he has worked since 1998. a permanent member of the opposition.

Mr Wilders has said he wants to end immigration from Muslim countries, tax headscarves and ban the Koran. He has called Moroccan immigrants “scum.” Although he has refused to back down from previous comments, Mr Wilders has pledged to respect the Dutch Constitution during coalition negotiations and has said he will suspend some of his most controversial – and unconstitutional – plans since the November election.

Negotiations to form the next government will continue in the coming weeks and months, and experts warn that much could still happen if talks continue.

“It remains speculative,” said Dr. Stoker. “But in the current situation this is a breakthrough.”

A few hours after announcing that he would temporarily give up the chance to become prime minister, Mr Wilders kept hope alive for any supporters who may have been disappointed by his announcement.

“And don’t forget: I will still be Prime Minister of the Netherlands,” he says wrote. “With the support of even more Dutch people. If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow.”