Wilders wants to "erode" the EU's power from within, but won't press for Nexit

Far-right political party PVV is still concerned about the influence the European Union has on its Member States, but party leader Geert Wilders confirmed on Monday that the PVV will not push for the Netherlands to withdraw from the 27-country bloc. Instead, he and his party want to work to dismantle or slim-down the EU with a larger faction in European Parliament.

"All our partners and sister parties in the European Union have also chosen to try as forcefully as possible to erode the power of the European Union from within," Wilders said to reporters on Monday. He also acknowledged a key detail that pollsters have noted for years: that the Dutch public simply does not support leaving the European Union in a so-called Nexit.

Wilders ramped up rhetoric for a Nexit referendum after the British public voted to leave the European Union in their own referendum in June 2016. At the time, 53 percent of Dutch voters were against holding such a ballot initiative. By 2019, only 15 percent of Dutch people thought leaving the European Union was a proper course of action.

Even still, the PVV included the issue in their platform ahead of the 2023 election to determine the composition of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament. The party's manifesto said it wanted a "sovereign Netherlands" that was "in charge of its own money, its own borders, and makes its own rules." It argued the EU was unnecessary, and only wanted to amass power, and again called for a "binding referendum on Nexit."

While Wilders led his party to a plurality of votes, only 36 percent of his own voters were in favor of Nexit when polled just after the November vote. Wilders claimed on Monday that the lack of support amounts to one in five being supportive of leaving the European Union, although that also appears to be over-estimated.

"Leaving the European Union is no longer what we want," Wilders said. If the public support isn't there, then it would be wiser to "do this in a different way," he continued.

In that way, he argued that he has not reversed his position on the issue, just his tactic for dealing with a perceived problem.