Wilders wants to let it be about migration again in The Hague. But at what price?

What does Wilders want? It is guessing for his coalitionmates VVD, NSC and BBB. Monday he stood Unexpectedly in a room in the Nieuwspoort press center to present a ten -point plan about asylum and migration, and to use big words: his patience was ‘up’.

This was not the Geert Wilders as they know him. As the leader of the largest government party, he has a lot of freedom from the Lower House. He mainly uses that freedom on X, where his patience is very often. But they had already found something on that. Prime Minister Dick Schoof and the others in the coalition or the cabinet hardly respond to what Wilders says there. For example, they have turned his largest stage into a reserve.

In addition, they often describe Wilders as ‘reliable’, someone with whom you can make agreements, with which they also make him important, and responsible for the survival of this cabinet. This also happened in the first Rutte cabinet of VVD and CDA, which tolerated the PVV. The two parties found Wilders reliable, and let the outside world like to know. Until Rutte I fell, in 2012. Then Wilders was ‘the runaway’, according to Mark Rutte.

Leaks from conversations

If there is a hassle between the four party leaders of the coalition, and that is often about leaks from confidential conversations, the other parties point to each other. Who did it? They know: Wilders is the only one who hardly talks to journalists. He can’t be. Wilders hates journalists, and often says that.

Wilders had long wanted it to be about migration and asylum again. The three other party leaders also knew that he would come up with something. He had already announced that the week before, in the weekly coalition consultation on Tuesday morning. But they hardly pay attention when he said it. It went high that week about nitrogen, outside of Wilders. BBB stands at Agriculture opposite VVD and NSC. Again it was not about asylum and migration.

This Monday Wilders broke out of his straitjacket. To the surprise of all three parties. Not because he threatened with a cabinet crisis; He does that more often. They have not forgotten that he had said at the end of last year that he « did not have a backbone of a banana, then on an asylum law law.

Old -fashioned method

Although disturbing for the other three is the way Wilders threatens. With a rented room, a ‘ten -point plan’, and the entire parliamentary press for itself. He did it, he said, as VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz had presented an ‘agenda for the working Netherlands’ in January. He did it in their way, not on his. And with that they can no longer ignore him, you would think. The standard sentence ‘We do not respond to tweets’ is no longer sufficient.

In the coalition they see Wilders behaving differently. That makes them restless. How high does Wilders want this to rise?

It was an old -fashioned method: who still comes with ten points? As a candidate leader of the VVD, Mark Rutte received the advice of his campaign strategists in 2006 to choose another number. Everyone already did ten, that was just like you had to fill your list. Rutte came with nine.

Wilders also presented ten points in 2004. He was still a member of parliament of the VVD, and dissatisfied with party leader Jozias van Aartsen. Among other things, he demanded that the VVD would never again rule with the PvdA, and those who did not integrate fast enough, had to leave the country. Money for development cooperation had to be halved. But Wilders was about his first point: Turkey was never allowed to become a member of the European Union. Wilders knew that this position would lead to a break with Jozias van Aartsen. And that happened too. Wilders was put out of the VVD, he started a one -man fraction. With his ten -point plan, they saw at the VVD, he had set this break himself.

‘Heated measures’

Whether that is his goal again? In the coalition consultation on Tuesday it remained unclear to the others. As Wilders was also unclear about it in the press conference on Monday: he threatened to get on, but said he was not threatening. It is already certain that the four party leaders will continue to talk about Wilders’ points. Maybe this week, otherwise next week. But whether there will really be negotiations, such as in the cabinet formation, and whether it can be about other things, they still have to think of. Nicolien van Vroonhoven of NSC is not in the mood, she says on Tuesday morning. « To talk about heated measures again. » She does not want to repeat the formation of last year.

Wilders tries to let the conversation in The Hague go again about asylum and migration, the subject that, according to voters, belongs to his PVV. He also shows it, probably unintentionally, how weak his own minister is. PVV member Marjolein Faber, minister for asylum and migration, wanded a motion by MP Claudia van Zanten (BBB) ​​last week for a temporary stop at family reunification. Faber came in the news a lot for a long time, but then it was usually about thoughtless plans and fuss. Now in The Hague it is much more about Gaza, Ukraine, Trump, NATO.

In the coalition they see Wilders behaving differently. That makes them restless. How high does Wilders want this to rise? Does he want new elections, again about asylum and migration? They work well with him, better than expected, but they don’t know him that well either. Wilders remains unpredictable.

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