March 18, 2017. Anti-Racism day in Amsterdam.NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved.Should the outcome of the Dutch elections be celebrated as a victory over right-wing forces that contagiously spread throughout the western world? Many seem to believe that Mark Rutte’s victory marks a decisive turning point that will allow for the safe homecoming of centrist liberal politics. We would like to disagree with such self-congratulating sentiment and, instead, warn for the dangerous trend towards an already existent and increasingly violent normalisation of nationalism, racism and xenophobia, as well as the continuing dismantling of the welfare state through neoliberal restructuring.
While Wilders’ ‘loss’ may seem important in preventing the far-right from winning in other European countries, the fact remains that the VVD’s win should arguably be seen as a win for right-wing populists rather than a success for progressive forces.
The Dutch elections cannot be separated from national history and international context. This campaign was marked by questions over Dutch identity in a similar way as the American elections. They both echoed Samuel Huntington’s conservative and polemic text, Who Are We? It is true that any critical mind would normally welcome an invitation to challenge the power embedded in our identities. This, however, is not what has happened in either the American or Dutch elections. The run-up to and results of the Dutch elections must instead be seen as attempts to defend, securitise and consolidate a specific vision or image of who is and who is not Dutch. This has a much longer history, to be sure, dating back to the emergence of the Netherlands as a colonial power, and the ways in which race has played a role in Dutch nation-building.
