Motion for mandatory members has Wilders on shaky ground after 10,000 days in parliament
Motion for mandatory members has Wilders on shaky ground after 10,000 days in parliament
Saturday marks PVV leader Geert Wilders’ 10,000th day as a member of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. He entered parliament as a VVD MP in 1998 and is now the longest-serving member of parliament. But his political future is suddenly uncertain due to a motion that could oblige political parties to allow members, Trouw reports.
On paper, the far-right PVV has two members: Geert Wilders and the foundation Vrienden van de PVV. Wilders is vehemently against letting anyone else into his party. But a motion by D66 MP Joost Sneller could change that. According to the newspaper, the motion to oblige parties to allow members has a solid chance of winning a majority.
After the last parliamentary elections, where the PVV retained 26 of its 37 seats, Wilders stressed that he would continue in politics until he is 80. Behind the scenes, the atmosphere is much less certain, especially after seven PVV MPs abandoned ship and left the parliamentary faction at the end of January. The seven MPs, now an independent faction led by Gidi Markuszower, wanted slightly more say in the PVV and got shot down.
Sources close to Wilders told Trouw that Sneller’s membership proposal could be very disruptive to the populist politician and may even mean the end of the PVV. He reportedly told the parliamentary faction that he did not intend to comply with the motion. Wilders operates on his own and controls the PVV and its politicians’ actions with an iron fist. It’s his trademark, and allowing members into the PVV would compromise his modus operandi.
But if he refuses to meet the obligation of allowing members, his only other option would be to resign as an MP. And that will have serious consequences. Wilders has been under strict security for decades, mainly due to threats originating from his vocal anti-Islam views. And that security is paid for by the Dutch state. If he resigns as MP, he loses that privilege.
How this will play out remains to be seen. For now, the PVV is confident that the motion will fail, MP Martin Bosma told Trouw after cursing at the newspaper’s journalists.
Bosma said that membership parties “undermine” parliamentary democracy. “The cadres are given too much power. That gives a distorted picture. Take the CDA. That party has many right-wing voters, but the CDA has a left-wing board. This has caused the CDA to shift very far to the left. That's why I oppose Joost Sneller's plan,” he said. “People will be reasonable and see the disadvantages.”
