Column | Proud of Wilders

Also so disappointed in Geert Wilders? Not me. On the contrary, I have never been so delighted about a decision from him. Believe it or not, but I even heard myself sigh on Tuesday morning: « Geert, boy, I am proud of you. »

In my previous consideration I tried to understand him psychologically – a perilous case, but on the back page of NRC Can you take a chance. « What will he do in the end? » I wondered then. I stopped that he would rather be the uncrowned opposition champion than a steering trailer in the government. I compared him with the hesitate Pieter Omtzigt – also such a runaway.

Barking from the sidelines in the Lower House – only then is Wilders in his element. He is a man of the form, not the content. He is mentally pushed up by a number of obsessions: asylum, Islam, left, journalism, judiciary, but otherwise he has no political idea, let alone ideal, of any importance.

He labels him as the type of populist politician of which nothing can be expected, except opportunism and the promotion of unrest. You can also see it in the foreign colleagues with whom he feels related. Trump and Orbán his heroes for him, he would prefer to have entered their footsteps as a political leader, but he must have realized in the past period that this is not reserved for him.

He did not develop the network that could have helped him with that. He remained a political loner who could not deliver good candidates for government posts, with Minister Faber who should have realized his ‘ideals’ on asylum and migration.

On the horizon more and more political issues were emerging that could bring him to him. Promises to the voter he could not take: the Israel issue, the Defense spending. It grew him above the head, he saw the decrease in the polls and decided: the helm has to change now that it is still possible.

But is it still possible? For his party. He must be able to win new elections again, but the seat gain will be less spectacular than last time; Some of his voters will turn away from him disappointed. Moreover, it is definitively done with his authority in politics. Time and again he will be thrown at the feet: you walk away when it gets difficult. His so faithful girlfriend Caroline van der Plas already says it: « He had to be number one. (…) I blame him. »

Number one. Well. Wilders has a vain side that is often overlooked. You saw it on Monday evening when he arranged it so that the whole country was waiting for him in it NOS Journaal. The next day he was again behind that white ‘fire door’ before he stepped out to dispose of the journal with a few short answers. Then he spread it – like a thief who hadn’t found what he was looking for.

And now? You could expect the best forces of the VVD, GroenLinks-PvdA, D66 and CDA to join forces. In the VVD summit, there would already be informal meetings, there appeared to be a certain aversion to Frans Timmermans. They will not get homesick for Geert Wilders, do they?

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