Helmer Stoel is editor of Jacobin NL.
The new Dutch government has declared an “asylum crisis,” allowing it to take emergency anti-migration measures without parliamentary approval. Based on trumped-up claims about migrants, it rewards decades of far-right posturing on the issue.
Christian moralists long promoted hobbies as a way to occupy idle hands, bringing the work ethic into our free time. Today hobbies risk turning into side hustles — yet they also point to what work might look like if it wasn’t about making money.
While the election victory of Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders is being treated as a shock, his rise was long in the making. For years, mainstream conservatives have echoed his talking points — and now, they may well make him prime minister.
Dutch premier Mark Rutte has resigned, pitching his country toward snap elections. He brought down the government in a conflict over migration — and there’s every sign his conservative party, the VVD, will now embrace the nationalist right.
The Farmer-Citizen Movement topped last month’s Dutch elections, claiming to stand up for overlooked rural populations. Yet the party is really a creation of a marketing agency — and its political agenda is a call to allow multinationals to go on polluting.