THE HAGUE: Newly-minted Prime Minister Dick Schoof faced a baptism of fire at the opening of the Dutch parliament over remarks by two ministers about a conspiracy theory with neo-Nazi roots.

Schoof was inaugurated on Tuesday with pomp and fanfare to head a coalition government dominated by far-right leader Geert Wilders and his anti-immigration Freedom Party, the PVV.

Two days later, the new Dutch premier’s first lower house debate spiralled into chaos when not only the opposition, but Wilders himself aimed his arrows at Schoof, his own choice for the top job.

No amount of preparation could ready Schoof, a veteran career civil servant, for his first appearance within the bear pit of Dutch parliamentary politics, marked by interruptions and sniping on X, formally known as Twitter.

At the centre of the controversy are two cabinet ministers from Wilders’s PVV: new Asylum and Migration Minister Marjolein Faber and Foreign Trade and Development Aid Minister Reinette Klever.

Both have in the past spoken about the so-called “omvolking” — the Dutch term for the “great replacement” theory that supposes that Europe’s white population is being deliberately replaced by immigrants.

While both ministers have “distanced themselves” from the term, they maintained that there was a “worrying demographic development” in the Netherlands, where the ruling coalition now wants to implement the “strictest immigration policy ever.”

Isolated

But Schoof reiterated during the debate: “I repeat, this government is against discrimination, racism and exclusion.” The Dutch left-wing opposition accused Schoof of tolerating those who have made “conspiratorial” and “racist” remarks — which also included criticising the wearing of veils — within his ministerial team.

Wilders himself then launched a virulent attack on Schoof for not defending his ministers for “being made out as racists”, calling Schoof’s response “weak”.

Schoof, not aligned to any party and who has been appointed by a four-party coalition of the PVV, the Liberal VVD, the farmer-friendly BBB and the new centre-right NSC, appeared isolated on all sides.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2024