Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Wilders Defeat Is No Reason for Complacency

The populists' setback in the Netherlands doesn't mean they won't come back at the next election if problems deepen.

March 16, 2017 at 6:05 AM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Dutch decision time.
Photographer: Carl Court

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Geert Wilders' larger-than-expected defeat in Wednesday's Dutch election sets up a disappointing year for nationalist populists, who only last year appeared to have centrist elites on the run. But while it's fine to celebrate Dutch good sense, it's also useful to keep in mind that the problems that nearly handed Wilders a win are not going away.

A year ago, Wilders' anti-immigrant, anti-European Union party, PVV, appeared poised to win a large plurality in the election despite having just one member (Wilders) and no local political offices or campaign machine. It was almost certain even then that Wilders wouldn't get a chance to govern, since other big parties had refused to cooperate with him after a minority cabinet's failed attempt to work with the PVV in 2011. His election victory, however, would have further energized fellow nationalists in France, Germany and Italy, already encouraged by Brexit and Donald Trump's election.