New Straits Times

The Netherland­s swears in right-wing govt

AMSTERDAM: Dutch anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders saw ministers from his party sworn in for the first time ever yesterday, as the Netherland­s’ new right-wing government was installed almost a year after the previous administra­tion resigned.

Far-right leader Wilders, the winner of last year’s general election, will not be part of the government, but his shadow will loom large as he continues to lead his Freedom Party from Parliament.

Wilders, who was convicted for discrimina­tion after he insulted Moroccans at a campaign rally in 2014, only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservati­ve parties in May after he gave up his bid to become prime minister.

Instead, the cabinet will be led by the independen­t and unelected Dick Schoof, a career bureaucrat who led the Dutch intelligen­ce agency AIVD and was a Justice Ministry senior official.

Schoof was put forward to alleviate concerns over Wilders’ anti-Islam rhetoric among his main coalition partners, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD and the centrist NSC.

But Wilders, who has been living under tight security for 20 years due to Islamist death threats, had said he would not change his tone, and last week told his 1.4 million followers on X he still saw Islam as a “violent and hateful religion”.

The new government has to stick to the agreement reached by the four parties, which aims for a clampdown on immigratio­n and exceptions on EU asylum and environmen­tal rules.

The new government will be the first since 2010 without Mark Rutte, who will become the North Atlantic Treaty Organisati­on’s secretary-general in October.