A jubilant Geert Wilders has put Dutch party leaders on notice that he aims to become the country’s first far-right prime minister when they begin coalition negotiations – which will take place for the first time without the centre-right VVD, in power for more than a decade.
After a campaign during which two of the strongest parties – Carolien van der Plas’s “farmer-citizen” BBB and Pieter Omtzigt’s New Social Contract – were punished by voters apparently because their leaders dithered about taking the top job, Mr Wilders was crystal clear.
Asked if he was going into the coalition talks with the aim of becoming prime minister, the Freedom Party leader, who won a final 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament, 12 more than his nearest rivals, said simply: “Yes, I would be very happy to become the next Dutch prime minister.”
That prompted the first post-election shock when the VVD, led by Turkish-born Dilan Yesilgöz, who succeeded Mark Rutte as leader last summer, said it would not take part in the next coalition because of the electoral pummelling that saw it plunge from 34 to 24 seats.
“That is a clear message from the voters,” said Ms Yesilgöz. “After 13 years leading the country it is time for us to take a different role. But we will not turn our backs on the people who voted for us. We will help make a centre-right coalition possible from outside.”
Mr Wilders was highly critical of the party’s decision not to serve in a right-wing cabinet he sees himself leading based on the scale of his win.
“I am very disappointed,” he said, emerging from a meeting with parliament speaker Vera Bergkamp to agree a framework for the negotiations. “This will make the difficult process of building a coalition longer and more difficult. And it will not give VVD voters the influence they could have had inside a new government.”
Ms van der Plas of the Eurosceptic BBB, likely to be allies of the Freedom Party, agreed. She described the VVD decision as “premature” without engaging in talks.
The VVD, however, has a bitter history with Mr Wilders. In 2010 he agreed to support the first Rutte coalition with the Christian Democrats from the sidelines but withdrew his support 18 months later and the government collapsed.
Mr Wilders’s win on Wednesday has prompted some low-key protests. Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, say they are worried he may roll back existing green policies. Muslim representatives say they are concerned his win could spark an anti-Islam backlash.
In The Hague, Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of far-right radical group Pegida, was sentenced to 40 hours’ community service by a court on Thursday for insulting Muslims by calling the Koran “a fascist book”.
