Despite winning the election, an anti-Islam extremist failed to become prime minister of the Netherlands

The leader of the extreme right party, Geert Wilders, failed to become Prime Minister of the Netherlands even though he won the general election (election) in November 2023. In his post on X, Wilders said he could not run for PM because his coalition candidate refused to support him.

“I can only become Prime Minister if ALL parties in the coalition support him. [But] that didn't happen," said Wilders on his X account, last Wednesday (13/3/2024), as reported by CNN Indonesia.

In the November 22 2023 election, Wilders' party, the Freedom Party (PVV), succeeded in gaining 23,5 percent of the vote. However, after weeks of negotiations, Wilders failed to reach an agreement and persuade other parties to back him. He then decided to give up his position at the top of the government.

Wilders hopes to form a coalition with the Freedom and Democracy Party (VVD), the party of PM Mark Rutte who is about to finish his term of office. VVD is in third place with 24 seats. Apart from that, Wilders also wants to form a coalition with the Social Contract Party (NSC) which is in fourth place with 20 seats. If the parties join forces, they will get 81 seats from the coalition. This number is enough for a majority in the Dutch parliament.

However, these hopes were dashed when NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt decided to withdraw from coalition talks. The NSC withdrew because it felt that it was not aligned regarding the state's financial prospects with these parties.

Many people believe that Wilders failed to gain support because of his strong 'extremist' stance, such as anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-European Union and Ukraine. He was considered to have crossed the line.

During this time, Wilders is also known as an anti-Islam politician. In fact, he emphasized that 'I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam” in 2008, quoted by The Guardian.