After the election win of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the House of Representatives elections 2023, the party achieved another victory in the European elections. The party is represented in the European Parliament with no fewer than six seats and is part of the June 2024 founded faction 'Patriots for Europe', a partnership of various far-right parties in Europe, waaronder de Freedom Party of Austria, the Vlaams Belang and the Hungarian Fidesz party of founder Viktor Orban. That the PVV thrives in such a faction is evident from various messages from various European candidates on social media.
'The Netherlands is ours again', 'The Netherlands back on 1', 'The Dutch come first again' and 'Together we put the Netherlands first'. In the run-up to the European elections, Geert Wilders used an image of happy white people with the text: “The sun will shine again in the Netherlands”. Loaded election slogans that briefly show what the PVV stands for, namely patriotism, nationalism and people-first rhetoric.
Eigen volk eerst
Auke Zijlstra, candidate three for the PVV on the European electoral list, posts in a Twitter message that the European Union has crazy rules. According to him, Romania should bring half a million Pakistanis to Romania as migrant workers because their own people work in Europe. “The Netherlands no longer has houses due to migration”, the report said. Also European PVV party leader Sebastiaan Stöteler, PVV municipal councilor in Almelo and Provincial Councilor in Overijssel, reports in a reposted message that the Dutch are missing out because of immigrants and refugees. “Within no time there was an asylum center in front of it 500 adventurers. Now an Enschede mother is in danger of ending up on the street. With children. Asylum seekers get everything and our own people can burst.” Wilders also writes similar rhetoric on Twitter of alleged discrimination against his own population. In a tweet from Wilders, the Marieke Ehlers, kandidaat 2 on the European list of the PVV and faction member of the extreme right-wing Identity and Democracy, reposted , can be read: “We are bursting at the seams, are crammed with African and Arab migrants, that take priority over our homes, stuff yourself for free at three-course dinners on luxury cruise ships, receive free care and benefits and often as a thank you raid our stores…”. These one-liners come straight from the PVV election manifesto 2023. According to the program, 'asylum seekers and other immigrants are considered more important than the well-being and prosperity of Dutch people'. Sebastian Cross, spokesperson for the PVV, municipal councilor of the PVV in The Hague and candidate 4 on the European election list, also tweets some things about this. “While Dutch people are being attacked by groups of immigrant hyenas, the security debates are mainly characterized by many left-wing tears about ethnic profiling.”
Prejudices
Stöteler has already indicated in the past that he wants to close asylum seeker centers. He regularly reposts tweets to this effect from fellow PVV members. For example, he reposts a message from Hidde Heutink, PVV Enschede, about a refugee who has behaved criminally. “Get this madman out of the country and stop receiving asylum seekers.” Refugees and crime are mentioned in the same breath and this idea is also fueled by the many negative reports from Geert Wilders on Twitter. And his messages are reposted by fellow PVV members without comment. Marieke Ehlers reposts a message from Wilders on Twitter, which reveals some frightening images: “Do you want open borders and therefore more terrorists?, letting in knife-pullers and Hamas supporters, then vote left. Do you want less asylum and a tough approach to terror?, anti-Semitism and violence and making the Netherlands safer, stem and PVV!”.
Her own tweets also reveal various prejudices. She placed the words above a photo of violent Moroccans: "Africa? Nee… Europe year 2022”. In another message about an incident involving immigrants, she writes that she is not surprised because she had already seen it coming.. Sebastiaan Kruis also regularly tweets about incidents of violence by immigrants. In a tweet, like Ehlers, he refers to the alleged primitiveness of refugees from African countries. “It's terrible how many pauper people have brought into The Hague. Vote for left-wing virtue parties and you will get tribal African tribal conflict in your street in return.”. It is striking that only messages from people with a migration background are mentioned, violence by the Dutch is silently omitted.
Spread law
Since the beginning of February 2024 the Spread Act is in force. Within extreme right-wing groups, this law was seen as an 'asylum coercion law'. The purpose of the law is to force municipalities to take in refugees so that, for example, Ter Apel is not the only shelter. The PVV was against this law. Stöteler reposts a message from Wilders:“I hope that the Senate rejects and votes away that terrible coercive asylum law this week. We should never force municipalities to accommodate asylum seekers (so). The Netherlands is full. Fully packed. Enough is enough. Away with the law.”. More apocalyptic visions come from PVV member Alexander van Hattem, who sits for the party in the Senate. According to him, the 'asylum coercion law is an expansion vessel to fully maintain mass immigration and turn the Netherlands into one large asylum seekers' center. The only solution is to stop the influx'. Kruis responds on Twitter to the asylum reception in The Hague. “Even if we as the municipality of The Hague receive a billion from the cabinet: we don't want those asylum seekers. No 100, no 10, maar 0! The Hague is full. Robbery=robbery=null.”
Support for violence
For the PVV, Israel is a predictive value for what will happen next in the West. “The armies of Hamas and Hezbollah march through the streets of Tel Aviv, then Amsterdam and Paris will be hopelessly lost”, said PVV member and House of Representatives Chairman Martin Bosma. In his book 'The false elite of the counterfeiters' he gives a simplified view of the Israeli conflict. According to him, Palestinians are Muslim immigrants who left their motherland to reap the benefits of the economic boom of Jews in Israel. “Dutch Muslim immigrants will demand rights in the same way and with the same arguments as their Palestinian counterparts’ brothers. Who gives territorial rights to the Muslim immigrants who are 'Palestinians’ are called, will soon also have to do the same to Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands. Thus we fall on our own sword. The arguments against Israel therefore become arguments against the Netherlands.”.
Sebastian Kruis uses and reinforces this narrative by Martin Bosma in a tweet in October 2023 to state that 'house by house, street by street, making #denhague neighborhood by neighborhood free of this imported hate ideology' . He refers here to the pro-Palestinian protests that were going on in The Hague at that time. In the run-up to the European elections, he uses this sentiment again by taking down videos of pro-Palestinian protests and adding the text: “They also vote for it 6 June".
Wilders has spoken out in various messages about his unconditional support for Israel. For example, Sebastiaan Stöteler reposts a number of messages from the leader. “Keep strong my Israeli friends in fighting Hamas. The UN, USA and Europe don’t understand you are fighting an existential war. Against the dark forces of hate and destruction called Hamas. I’ll always support you.”. In another message, he encourages Israel to "give hell" to its opponents. “We are at war” says Netanyahu. Indeed. An we support you. Give them hell”, Wilders said. Here too, the messages are one-sided and show Israel's crimes, the condemnations of the international community, the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice are not mentioned and supported.
Extremely right
The PVV candidates spread far-right ideas on a large scale, including by sowing hatred towards refugees and Muslims (knife pullers, violence of alleged primitive peoples), responding to fear scenarios (with exaggerations such as the 'asylum coercion law' that turns the Netherlands into a large asylum seekers' center) or aimed at hatred towards strangers (cultuur) elements. An example of this is a message from Kruis in which he cynically describes Muslim men who stand up for drag queens. “Muslim men are advocating for drag culture en masse. Beautiful dresses with a 7of century desert signature”. Furthermore, the PVV focuses on its own people and an exaggerated form of nationalism is noticeable. These are just a few characteristics on which a political party is assessed whether it can be called extreme right or not extreme right. As far as the PVV is concerned, the party clearly belongs to the extreme right camp and therefore thrives in the Patriots for Europe faction.
