Newly-minted Prime Minister Dick Schoof faced a baptism of fire at the opening of the Dutch parliament over remarks by two cabinet ministers about a conspiracy theory with neo-Nazi roots.

Schoof was inaugurated on Tuesday with pomp and fanfare to head a coalition government dominated by far-right leader Geert Wilders and his anti-immigration Freedom Party, the PVV.

Two days later, the new Dutch premier’s first lower house debate spiralled into chaos when not only the opposition, but Wilders himself aimed his arrows at Schoof, his own choice for the top job.

No amount of preparation could ready Schoof, a veteran career civil servant, for his first appearance within the bear pit of Dutch parliamentary politics, marked by interruptions and sniping on X, formally known as Twitter.

At the centre of the controversy are two cabinet ministers from Wilders’ PVV: new Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber and Foreign Trade and Development Aid Minister Reinette Klever.

Both have in the past spoken about the so-called “omvolking” — the Dutch term for the “great replacement theory” that supposes that Europe’s white population is being deliberately replaced by immigrants.

While both ministers have “distanced themselves” from the term, they maintained that there was a “worrying demographic development” in the Netherlands, where the ruling coalition now wants to implement the “strictest immigration policy ever.”

Isolated

But Schoof reiterated during the debate: “I repeat, this government is against discrimination, racism and exclusion.”

The Dutch left-wing opposition accused Schoof of tolerating those who have made “conspiratorial” and “racist” remarks — which also included criticising the wearing of veils — within his ministerial team.

Wilders himself then launched a virulent attack on Schoof for not defending his ministers for “being made out as racists”, calling Schoof’s response “weak.”

“The prime minister should immediately distance himself from it. I will not accept anything less!” Wilders said on X.

Schoof, not aligned to any party and who has been appointed by a four-party coalition of the PVV, the Liberal VVD, the farmer-friendly BBB and the new centre-right NSC, appeared isolated on all sides.

Leiden politics professor Ruud Koole told AFP the first debate was a litmus test to see how far the PVV’s junior coalition parties would go to normalise extreme views within Wilders’ party.

“It turns out very far,” he said.

“The statements made in the past by PVV ministers about the ‘great replacement’ have been swept under the carpet,” Koole said.

“All three the other coalition parties have accepted to have the ‘great replacement’ rephrased as a “demographic phenomenon”,’ he said.

‘Disgusting’

Wilders, who claimed a stunning victory in last year’s parliamentary elections, continues to lead his party as an MP.

He gave up on ambitions to become Dutch prime minister after other coalition parties threatened to withdraw because of his anti-Islam and eurosceptic views.

Wilders said he wanted to limit immigration to the Netherlands “as much as possible”, but he has indeed called the “great replacement” theory “disgusting”.

But during the debate, he aimed his barbs at Schoof for not defending those ministers made out by the left, according to Wilders, as “racist.”

Wilders’s outburst was immediately criticised by the junior coalition partner leaders of the VVD and the NSC on X.

“I was particularly struck by how defensive Wilders was and how he tried in a frantic and authoritarian way to deny the racism that his party clearly propagates in various ways,” said Sarah Bracke, sociology professor at the University of Amsterdam.

“It is intellectually and politically untenable to continue to deny that the ideas at the heart of the PVV, and also of this government, are not racist, or that it would be enough to no longer mention the term ‘great replacement’ to make extremist and racist ideas disappear,” she told AFP.

“If Mr Wilders continues to criticise his prime minister, this could lead to Schoof’s resignation,” added Leiden University’s Koole.

“But we are not there yet,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The new Dutch government poses with Dutch King Willem-Alexander on the steps of royal palace Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, Netherlands, on July 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Netherlands has a different Prime Minister for the first time in 14 years as Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in the country’s new government Tuesday, more than seven months after elections dominated by a far-right, anti-Islam party.

Dick Schoof, former head of the Dutch intelligence agency and counterterrorism office, signed the official royal decree at Huis Ten Bosch Palace, saying he “declared and promised” to uphold his duties as the country’s prime minister. The 67-year-old was formally installed alongside 15 other ministers who make up the country’s right-leaning coalition.

The anti-immigration party of firebrand Geert Wilders won the largest share of seats in elections last year but it took 223 days to form a government.

The four parties in the coalition are Wilders’ Party for Freedom, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the populist Farmer Citizen Movement and the centrist New Social Contract party.

The formal agreement creating the new coalition, titled “Hope, courage and pride,” introduces strict measures on asylum-seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country.

Opposition from other coalition partners prevented the controversial Wilders from taking the prime minister’s job. During the monthslong negotiations, he backpedaled on several of his most extreme views, including withdrawing draft legislation that would have banned mosques, Islamic schools and the Quran.

ALSO READ: Far-right turn: On Geert Wilders’ win in the Netherlands

For the first time since World War II, the Netherlands is now led by a prime minister who is not aligned with a political party. Before serving as chief of the country’s top intelligence agency, Mr. Schoof was previously the counterterror chief and the head of the country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service.

During the lengthy talks, his name had not been circulated as a possible prime minister and national newspaper the Telegraaf reported that Mr. Schoof was the fifth choice for the top spot. Mr. Wilders’ first pick, Ronald Plasterk, was forced to withdraw from consideration after allegations of his involvement in a medical patent fraud came to light.

The other government ministers were sworn in Tuesday according to seniority of their departments. One minister, Femke Wiersma who will head the agriculture portfolio, made her declaration in Frisian — the country’s second official language alongside Dutch.

Although the November elections were widely seen as a win for the far right, political youth organisations are already pushing back on the ambitions of the new government. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, youth groups from six parties, including two of the coalition partners, called for a softening on asylum plans.

“Although the influx must be limited, it is of great importance that we receive people here fairly and with dignity,” Eva Brandemann, chairperson of the youth wing of the New Social Contract, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

Her counterpart in Mr. Rutte’s party, which brought down the government last summer over concerns about the number of family reunifications for refugees, told NOS that problems stemmed from administration, not migration. “The impression after all those conversations is that there is not so much an asylum crisis but a reception crisis,” Mauk Bresser, the chair of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy youth organisation said.

The new government will now spend the summer firming their coalition agreement into a governing plan.