Dutch politician Wilders vows ‘I will be prime minister’ at X

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Veteran Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders vowed on Saturday to eventually become prime minister of the Netherlands after an election in which his party won the largest number of seats.

In a long post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he expressed his frustration with other parties for their apparent unwillingness to cooperate with his Freedom Party, Wilders said he would “continue to soften his positions” if necessary to gain power.

“Today, tomorrow or the day after, the Freedom Party will be part of the government and I will be prime minister of this beautiful country,” Wilders wrote.

Although Wilders’s Freedom Party achieved a significant lead over its rivals in the vote held on November 22 on an anti-immigration platform, his party is expected to obtain only 25% of the seats in the Dutch parliament.

This means that he will have to cooperate with at least two moderate parties in order to form the government.

Interim Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party, which shares many of Wilders’ views on immigration, said on Friday that it would not participate in government with him.

But the party’s new leader, Dylan Jeselgos, did not rule out providing external support to Wilders’ government.

Peter Omtzgut, who leads the National Reform Party (NSC) and is also seen as a potential partner in a Wilders government, said cooperation would be difficult due to extreme positions expressed by Wilders that appear to violate Dutch constitutional protections for freedom of religion.

Dutch coalition talks usually take months, and attitudes about the parties’ willingness to work with each other can change over time.

If Wilders is unable to form a government, it is theoretically possible to form more centrist groups that exclude the Freedom Party, while new elections would be a last resort.

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