Last month’s elections in the Netherlands caused a political earthquake.
Led by Islamophobe and Eurosceptic Geert Wilders, often described as the Dutch Donald Trump, the populist Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament, more than double its 17 seats. of 2021. With a significantly larger share than the Labor-Greens-Left coalition with 25 seats, the PVV, led by Wilders with sole authority, now has the preferred route to forming a government.
The PVV clearly benefited from Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, demonstrating that extremism breeds radical responses not only in Israel but also in the Dutch elections.
Left-wing parties continued their decline. In 1998, the Labor Party, the Green-Left Party and the non-coalition Socialist Party together obtained 61 seats. The same parties fell to 30 seats in 2023.
Wilders’ election and parliament’s rightward shift, however, are not the cornerstone of a religious resurgence, but of a 70-year process of secularization that has seen confessional parties decimated amid growing uncertainty over to the cost of living.
Three confessional Christian Democratic parties dominated Dutch politics from the early 20th century, winning 76 seats in 1965. In the 1970s, they campaigned under the slogan of “ethical renewal”, advocating a return to Christian norms and values in politics. And from their merger in 1980 with the Christian Democratic Appeal Party (CDA) until 1994, no government could be formed without their participation.
In 2006, the CDA won 41 seats and returned to power as part of a Liberal Party-led coalition in 2010, despite declining to 21 seats. But in this election it won only 5 seats, while the traditionally smaller Christian Union and the Calvinist Reformed Political Party gained 3 seats each. Christians have never been so poorly represented in Parliament, with faith and ethics playing a negligible role in electoral debates.
Wilders, meanwhile, appealed to Dutch voters on the basis of “preserving the Christian character of the nation.” He campaigned under the slogan “Netherlands First”, combining anti-Muslim rhetoric with a decidedly pro-Israeli stance. By distorting crime statistics, based on fear, he called for the Netherlands to leave the European Union, to stop receiving asylum seekers, and to push back migrants at Dutch borders. and the “de-Islamization” of the Netherlands with clearly unconstitutional methods.
His version of populist conservatism never refers to personal faith.
Wilders has long been a staunch defender of the far right. In 2008, his film Fitna sparked death threats against him amid widespread criticism for his demonizing criticism of the dominant Muslim religion. At the time, I was in Egypt heading the Center for Arab-Western Understanding (CAWU). We worked with the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the social action arm Kerk in Actie, with churches in Egypt and with al-Azhar in Cairo, the main religious center of the Sunni Muslim world, to defuse the crisis.
In 2011, Wilders was brought to justice for his aggressive, offensive and abusive language against Islam. Although acquitted, the PVV combined his speech with blatantly false information about the persecution of Christians in Egypt. But in 2016 he was found guilty of insulting Muslims as a group – not the religion itself – and inciting discrimination.
During this election cycle, he has moderated his rhetoric – but not the PVV program – to better appeal to a diverse population. And after his victory, he presented himself as the potential prime minister of all Dutch people, while warning that his opponents represented an “elite” who were trying to keep him out of government. With the exception of a brief period between 2010 and 2012, this is exactly what other political parties did. We do not yet know if, this time, a government will be able to form without him.
The Italian academic Antonio Scurati writing against a return to populist power politics in Europe. Such a policy, he says, relies on reducing complex societal problems to a nebulous enemy, as evidenced by the rise of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who at the time blamed all ills on socialists and Jews.
Today, populists around the world focus on immigrants and, often, Muslims. Had elections been held across the continent, it is likely that right-wing parties in other European countries would also have benefited from Hamas’s massacre of Israelis.
Even though Wilders’ rise to power caused shock across Europe, the results of these elections were partly expected. Dissatisfaction with traditional Dutch politics has grown exponentially, due to the rising cost of living and the greatest housing shortage since World War II. Migration issues brought down the previous government, while frustration boiled over the Liberal Party’s promotion of the business class at the expense of lower-income citizens.
Although there is no precise polling data on Christian voters, the PVV’s populist revolt has enjoyed support from Christians who fear further changes in cultural values in the Netherlands. However, Marietta van der Tol, head of the Protestant Political Thought Project at Oxford University, does not think believe that Wilders attracted a large number of Christian votes, despite the attention given to him by established Christian networks.
Christian values, however, have long been part of the Dutch establishment, which was deeply religious until the 1950s. Billy Graham’s preaching tours attracted tens of thousands of people to stem the secular tide, and other evangelists followed in his footsteps. Evangelical churches were founded, largely from established Reform congregations, and in the 1960s the Evangelical Broadcasting Corporation reinforced the conservative faith more broadly. But secularization was already a well-established social trend, and by 1966 a third of Dutch citizens did not consider themselves members of any church.
Today, only 34 percent are memberswhile only 11 percent participate regularly.
But many churches are uncomfortable with Wilders’ victory. This is especially true for those who support ministries in the Muslim world and are unhappy with its polemical culture.
Samuel Zwemer, a 19th-century Dutch-American Reformed missionary, mobilized many Dutch Christians, including doctors, nurses, preachers, and teachers, to serve in the Middle East. Their work helped establish Protestant churches and combat widespread economic and educational poverty locally.
Over time, the emphasis has shifted to intercultural and interreligious dialogue. Dutch ministries have understood that minority churches will have no future if they do not engage in establishing peaceful relations with the Muslim majority. Wilders’ polemics, however, do not fit with the traditional inclusiveness of Christianity, in which all are welcome, regardless of their background.
But all is not gloomy politically. In 2019, the right-wing agrarian populist Peasant-Citizen Movement (FCM) was formed. In this election, he won 7 seats. Another new party is the New Social Contract (NSC), formed in 2023 from internal splits within the CDA. It won 20 seats. Both parties have clearly Christian Democratic roots, and although the FCM appeals only to traditional values – not Christianity – the NSC speaks clearly with reference to Christian principles.
But while the PVV won 25 percent of the vote, 75 percent of the population prefers someone other than Wilders. Migration policies will certainly change to become stricter, while the next government will have to work hard to resolve social problems and regain the trust of the population as a whole.
Many Christians, however, have taken refuge in populist rhetoric, secular conservatism, or religious nationalism, all of which dilute the biblical message of love, peace, and justice. Neglecting the call of the Gospel to care for one’s neighbor, their political choices accelerate the exit of many from the Church. Without a widespread and inclusive revival, Christianity in the Netherlands is likely to decline further.
Wilders is not the answer. He doesn’t pretend to be.
Cornelis Hulsman is the senior advisor to the Center for Arab-Western Understanding, a former member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, and joined the New Social Contract when it was formed in August. He was a freelance journalist for CT from 2000 to 2012.
