The Hague: Europe and the Arabs
Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch far-right Freedom Party, said that the government's development aid to foreign countries should be ended. He said, "I would prefer that hunger in Africa be a little more than in the Netherlands."
According to media reports in the Belgian capital, Brussels, including the newspaper Nieuwsblad, Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party in the Netherlands, made a very bold statement during an election debate on NPO1 last night. He called for reducing the value-added tax to 0%. To compensate for this revenue, he would stop development aid. "Then hunger in Africa might be a little more, but not here." He meant aid provided by the government to foreign countries within the framework of international cooperation for development.
According to Wilders, "millions of Dutch people are struggling to make ends meet." To solve this problem, he proposed imposing a 0% value-added tax on groceries. He said that this would "cost a few billion. About the same as development aid. So that could be covered by ending it. Then hunger in Africa might be a little more, but not here." His statement was met with outrage and derision.
Heated Debate
This wasn't the only notable remark made during the election debate. Rob Jetten, a politician from the Democratic 66 Party, hit the nail on the head. He described Dutch Princess Amalia, the heir to the throne, as the "best advertisement" to attract more young men to the military. She began her military training in September. "By attending military training with the princess, I bet some men in this room will be interested," he said. The debate moderator immediately confronted him: "What kind of sexist comment is that?" Wilders was again criticized during a debate on femicide. Jetten, the leader of the Democratic 66 Party, said of the agreement signed by eight parties: "There's a missing signature, and it's in front of me." Wilders responded: "The Party for Freedom is the biggest friend of women here." Jetten shouted: "Impossible!" Dilan Yesilgöz, chairwoman of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), chimed in, saying, "Why don't you ever attend debates? You only show up when an incident happens, and then you gossip on Twitter. You sell hope, but you bring one disappointment after another." Tempers were still running high between Geert Wilders and Frans Timmermans (Green Left/PvdA), among others. A heated argument broke out between them over the AI-generated images released by PVV MPs. Timmermans refused to accept the excuses: "They've been running a hate factory for ten years." Wilders countered: "I did more than Mr. Timmermans did when the image of genocide appeared." Timmermans, in turn, called that "weak." The election campaign in the Netherlands has heated up ahead of Wednesday's parliamentary elections, which will determine the number of seats each party will win and qualify it to participate in a governing coalition in the country, which has suffered from political chaos for the past two years, according to media reports in neighboring Belgium on Monday morning. This came after the withdrawal of the far-right party in the country, led by Geert Wilders, from the governing coalition, which left the government without the majority in parliament to pass legislation due to disagreements over asylum and immigration laws and other matters. This is not the first time that the far-right has been included in a government coalition, leading to early elections and the government's downfall. However, according to recent opinion polls, some parties have achieved success, increasing their chances of winning more seats in the next parliament. This could, therefore, allow for the formation of a new coalition without the far-right (PVV), even if the latter still holds the largest number of seats compared to the other parties. According to the Dutch website "Wildlinge Kringen," opinion polls showed that the gap between the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), the left-wing Green Party (GroenLinks-PvdA), and the Democratic Party (D66), according to an Ipsos I&O poll, is around four seats. If the margin of error of approximately two seats is taken into account, D66 and the Green Party (GroenLinks-PvdA) could outperform Geert Wilders's (PVV). Opinion polls showed the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVVD) winning 26 seats, the Green Party (GL-PvdA) 23, and the D66 party 22. D66's actual gain is particularly notable: it gained four seats in the poll. While the PVVD lost three seats, the Green Party (GL-PvdA) remained unchanged. Wilders now has 11 additional seats in the House of Representatives, Frans Timmermans' party gained three seats, and D66 now holds nine seats.
The CDA saw a significant decline compared to last week's poll. Henri Bontenpaal's party dropped from 25 to 20 seats.