D66 leader Kaag and GroenLinks leader Klaver both appeal to other parties in the run-up to the municipal elections not to run with Forum for Democracy or PVV. Kaag did so at a campaign meeting of her party, Klaver spoke at a GroenLinks congress.
Kaag said her party is not going to rule with the “extreme right”. She asked her national colleagues to “give that same clarity”. Klaver believes that fellow party leaders should draw a “democratic border” with him.
Klaver said Fvd politicians are carrying out “a systematic attack on the democratic rule of law” by, for example, talking about tribunals where politicians will be tried. He fears that this will lead to political violence and referred to the storming of the Capitol in Washington following a call from then President Trump to come to the city.
Kaag said in her speech: “Extremism carries wrong flags or a torch on the street. In the House of Representatives, it wears a tie. With a few seats, it often paralyzes the parliamentary order. And now it‘s knocking on the doors of the council halls in all parts of the Netherlands.”
“Extremism inspires threat”
She also talked about comparisons between the corona measures and the Holocaust and threatening tribunals. “This extremism inspires threats to public office holders,” said the D66 politician, who himself is frequently threatened.
In a response to the speeches, Forum for Democracy says: “Comes out nice, because we don’t want to control with them either”.
PVV leader Wilders calls it “arrogance to put more than a million PVV men in the wrong camp. In this way, D66 and GroenLinks show that they themselves are the new fascists of 2022.”
VVD leader Rutte and CDA leader Hoekstra understand the call of D66 and GL. Both say they can‘t imagine that local groups think it’s a good idea to work with Fvd or PVV, but that they ultimately decide that for themselves.
Rutte says it can‘t imagine that there is a local VVD group, which says: “we will happily work with Forum or the PVV, also because so much has happened recently.”
Hoekstra also believes that “such debatable texts” have been voiced, in which he mentions Fvd leader Baudet as an example. “That’s just not acceptable.”
The municipal elections will be in a month, on 14, 15 and 16 March. Fvd will participate in 50 municipalities, the PVV in 31.