Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Party for Freedom, managed to reach an agreement with three center-right parties.
Geert Wilders is the new strongman of the Netherlands
The leader of the far-right PPV party, the Party for Freedom, announced on Thursday that a coalition had been found to govern the country.
Six months after his surprise victory, obtaining 37 seats, or more than a quarter of those elected to Parliament, his party, anti-Islam and anti-immigration, managed to come to an agreement with three other movements.
The New Social Contract party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, and the Farmer-Citizen Movement.
Geert Wilders will not become the next Prime Minister, however. The latter will be named in the coming days.
The name of former Education and Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk, who also played a key role in overseeing the early negotiations, is raised.
“The strictest asylum policy ever”
Wilders immediately announced radical changes, notably concerning the right to asylum in the Netherlands.
At a press conference, he declared that a “emergency law concerning asylum seekers will be quickly put in place, and that the recent law on the distribution of these asylum seekers between Dutch municipalities will be repealed.” He added that this law “will be the strictest in the history of the country. “
