VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz has stressed her party will not form a coalition with the PVV, even if Geert Wilders’s far-right party becomes the largest after the general election in October.
At a party congress in Nieuwegein, Yesilgöz was applauded by delegates when she ruled out power-sharing with Wilders “even if the PVV wins 50 seats”. “Because Geert Wilders has shown that every vote for him is wasted.”
Yesilgöz had come under pressure from senior party figures to reinstate the cordon sanitaire around the PVV after Wilders pulled out of the coalition two weeks ago.
The other three parties inn the right-wing cabinet – VVD, NSC and BBB – rejected his demand to sign a commitment to push through a 10-point programme of stricter asylum rules, many of which were already in the coalition agreement.
Yesilgöz accused Wilders of walking away from government at a time when “leadership” was required.
“Geert Wilders didn’t get the memo,” she said. “Anyone who still thinks that working with Wilders gives them a chance of making good policies on migration, security and freedom, is mistaken.”
“Radical left”
But Yesilgöz also rejected the idea of working with the left-wing alliance of GroenLinks-PvdA, claiming that the party had “been dragged away from the centre” by its “radical left supporters”.
“If you look at where they stand now, I have big concerns,” she said. “It seems to have become a party that does nothing but raise taxes, drive away businesses and keep making government bulkier and more complex.”
There were few murmurs of dissent from the floor, but Yesilgöz moderated her tone slightly on Israel, reflecting the growing criticism in party ranks of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
“I support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, but I’m also critical of prime minister Netanyahu’s cabinet,” she said. “Let’s not force ourselves to be one-dimensional.”
She said the VVD was opposed to sanctions against Israel as a whole, but did not rule out targeted measures against individual ministers if they expressed extremist views.
She also added that if the VVD formed part of the next cabinet, it may have to make concessions to parties that take a more critical line on Israel and Gaza. “Please don’t draw all sorts of red lines for me before the formation talks have even started,” she said.