The Netherlands: Saturday Morning Thoughts

The Netherlands: Saturday Morning Thoughts

✍️ Author’s Note

This short reflection responds to the unfolding political chaos in The Hague following the resignation of Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp. It highlights how a single fateful decision—normalizing Geert Wilders and the PVV—has left the Netherlands vulnerable to instability at home and moral blindness abroad.

This Saturday morning my thoughts turn to my home country, the Netherlands, and to the disastrous choices of VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz. By normalizing the abnormal and refusing to exclude the nationalist and xenophobic PVV from government participation, she paved the way for the current chaos.

The result was a government led by former civil servant Dick Schoof, once at the Ministry of Security and Justice. From the start, this was a fragile construct. Its collapse came swiftly—and rightly so—a good morning for the Netherlands.

Yet the chaos did not end there. Last night, the caretaker government suffered another blow when Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) resigned after tense negotiations in the Council of Ministers. Other NSC members followed.

Veldkamp, a former Dutch ambassador to Israel, had long misguidedly placed his faith in diplomacy and dialogue, despite Israel’s year-long violations in the occupied territories—war crimes, crimes against humanity, even elements of genocide. But with the cabinet dominated by traditional support for Israel and unwilling even to consider minimal sanctions, he had reached the limits of consensus. His resignation was inevitable.

Once again, this confirms how disastrous Yeşilgöz’s decision was: by legitimizing Geert Wilders and the PVV, she opened the door to instability and long-term damage. Wilders, a long-standing supporter of Israel who once spent two years in an agricultural commune there, has ensured that his ideological loyalties are woven into Dutch foreign policy—with consequences we now see unfolding.

🌿A Critical Note

Dilan Yeşilgöz’s choice to normalize the PVV and invite Geert Wilders into government was a historic blunder. The Schoof cabinet collapsed quickly, and last night even Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) resigned after failing to bridge divisions over Israel and Gaza.

The result: chaos, instability, and a foreign policy still shackled to blind support for Israel. The Netherlands is left paying the price for a decision that should never have been made.

The warning is clear: once you legitimize extremism, it is extremism that sets the terms.

Netherlands, WJJH, August 2025

📌 Blog Excerpt

The fall of the Schoof government and the resignation of Caspar Veldkamp reveal the long shadow of Yeşilgöz’s mistake. By legitimizing the PVV, the Netherlands invited chaos into its institutions and compromised its moral compass in foreign policy.