A Pyrrhic Victory

Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan sends his postmortem of yesterday’s general election in The Netherlands.

A Pyrrhic victory
by H. Numan

Mr. Rutte is ecstatic over his massive victory. He shouldn’t be. Remember that (in his days) famous general, Pyrrhus of Epirus? After the battle of Asculum he said ‘Ne ego si iterum eodem modo uicero, ullo milite Epirum reuertar’, or in English: Another such victory and I come back to Epirus alone. The VVD victory is Pyrrhic. They didn’t win anything at all; they lost less than others.

Wilders isn’t finished by a long shot. He threw his clog in the political machinery once again. Not by refusing to participate in the formation, but the opposite. He immediately offered his support and is happy to be part of any coalition government. Other parties always accuse Wilders being a dictator who either does it his way or not at all have to find new lies. Don’t worry; they are a creative bunch.

Yes, we all expected a lot better. But it’s not that bad at all. The VVD got a drubbing. They lost 25% of their support in Parliament, from 41 to 33. Politically speaking, the PvdA is a dead duck. It has never ever happened a party lost that much support in the history of our country. From 38 to 9. Down and out for the count. We won’t be hearing from them any time soon. Being good socialists that they are the party brass refuses to resign. Hans Spekman said the party will have to decide about that. Lodewijk Asscher didn’t want to become leader in parliament without a clause saying that he won’t be a sacrificial goat. With those two in control of the clown car I’m more than happy. On with the show!

Yasser Feras Klaver won’t be invited to participate. He disqualified himself completely on TV. In an interview his reply to all serious economic questions was ‘Yeah. So what?’ That endeared him to his teenaged girl voters, but nobody else. He’ll be politely asked for a chat and a cup of coffee, for appearances’ sake.

Next one to drop out of the formation: Emile Roemers. Our Dear Leader of the Socialist (=Maoist) Party said ex cathedra he won’t participate in any coalition with the VVD. Not a problem. He’s not required anyway. His party lost a seat. That’s really a terrible result, if you think about it. The PvdA got murdered and the SP couldn’t grab a bit of the corpse. He’ll be out of job probably next month, or as soon as they get a family member of Jan Marijnissen’s ready. That branch of socialism is a family business. In North Korea the Kim family, in Holland the Marijnissen family.

The most likely cabinet will be VVD — CDA — D66 with someone else. Likely the CU. That combination has worked together in the past; they got along fairly well. They all agree on the main points: more Europe, more compassion (=refugees), more multiculturalism (=islam). The bickering will be over how to divide the loot. Not reeling it in.

Their biggest problem is how to sell what they really want to the population. That brings us to what Wilders actually already has achieved so far. More multiculturalism is almost impossible to sell. Wilders has been proven right again in the row with Turkey. Rutte can, if he dares, settle things in an amicable way with Erdogan, but that will not exactly improve his trustworthiness. He’s already very weak in that department. Wilders, and nobody else, demolished the taboo on discussing multiculturalism.

One of the reasons why the PVV didn’t gain more is that the other parties copied his ideas; otherwise they couldn’t have defeated him. Rutte, for example, had no problem with a Turkish minister actively campaigning in the Netherlands. Just not at that precise moment. Now he has to act, though, whether he likes it or not. Van Haersma Buma (CDA) stole the PVV proposal to learn and sing the national anthem in schools. Three months before he voted against it. Now he presents it as his own handiwork.

Another reason why the PVV lost is simply lack of funds. All political parties are sponsored by the government, with multi-million dollar budgets. (When you are in parliament, you can vote for anything you want. Like free money.) Except one. The PVV is technically not a party (‘vereniging’) and cannot cash in. Their budget is really tight, as the Baron can confirm. Wilders’ protection is paid for by the government, but with limitations. If Wilders wants to hold a media interview or visit a city, he has to pay the tab himself. The same goes for other party members. Therefore, out of necessity the PVV couldn’t campaign as much as they wanted.

Another problem is that left-wing hooligans will torch your car, throw rocks through your windows or worse if they even suspect you being PVV member. Organize or attend a local meeting, you’ll need police protection — which you won’t get.

Without becoming a member of a new cabinet, Wilders already leads the way they will have to work. That’s no mean achievement. Having a dual nationality is now open for debate. Yes, the others parties approve of it. But now there is a monster of their own making: Denk. They got three seats. That’s a lot. That’s as much as the Staats Gereformeerde Partij. There are as many virulently mohammedan voters as strict Calvinists in the country now.

Forget any notion about Denk being a ‘pro-Arab’ party. They aren’t. Denk is as close as possible a branch of the Turkish AKP, Erdogan’s party. Believe me, if Kuzu wants to go to the loo he has to call Ankara for permission. It’s definitely not a pro-Arab party, not even a pro-all-mohammedans party. They are a Turkish party. The branch office of Erdogan within our parliament. There isn’t — yet — a Moroccan party, which is the only reason why Moroccans with a Dutch second passport voted for Denk. A lot of mohammedan former PvdA voters vote now for Denk.

Make no mistake: Turkey is furious. Here’s a list of what high ranking Turkish officials barfed out so far. The Dutch are:

1.   Hitler
2.   Mussolini
3.   Franco
4.   Kim Jong un
5.   Murderers
6.   Organ harvesters
7.   Women traffickers
8.   Gorillas
9.   Dogs
10.   Dictators
11.   Fascists (no distinction between fascist Rutte and fascist Wilders; I’m disappointed.)
12.   Racists
13.   Colonialists
14.   Low-lifes
15.   Ignoble
16.   lack character
17.   are devoid of humanity
18.   commit genocide against mohammedans
 

That’s not from the man in the street, but directly from ministers and other top officials. Erdogan would love to punish The Netherlands, he just has no idea how. Mutual trade is less than 1%, and mainly from The Netherlands to Turkey. An economic boycott isn’t going to work in his favor. Dutch travel agencies already noticed fewer people booking holidays to Turkey. I wonder why that is.

Turkish retaliation so far was burning the wrong flag. They burned the French flag instead of the Dutch. A farmer threatens to kill his Dutch cow, and cities revoke their friendship ties. Gaziantep cut their relation with Nijmegen. Erdogan called for the cancellation of friendship with Rotterdam. The problem is, Rotterdam has no ties with any Turkish city…

Erdogan himself is calling for a holy war.

It’s a bit buffoonish. Nevertheless, the Turks really are furious. There are 400,000 of them living in our country. The Dutch army has 40,000 men and little equipment. The police have already had difficulty controlling one Turkish riot, let alone five or more in different cities.

To sum it up: Article 1 wasn’t elected. That was a racist party, our version of Black Lives Matter More. VNL, two turncoats who left the PVV with their seats, weren’t elected. Thierry Baudet was; he leads the Forum for Democracy (FvD), with two seats. I’m not too sure about Mr. Baudet. He looks to me like the younger version of Rutte: about as trustworthy, and without any social conscience whatsoever. He is a diehard libertarian.

All in all, not really a bad election. Overall, left-wing parties lost out massively, and conservatives move slowly forward. The EU can applaud Rutte, but the problems are still there and will get much worse. Greece is still teetering. ISIS is probably ready now to strike in anywhere Europe when they want to. For the EU and the elites in Holland, this was a Pyrrhic victory.

— H. Numan

32 thoughts on “A Pyrrhic Victory

  1. So the VVD incorporate some aspects of the PVV policies so as to persuade voters to stay with the VVD and not switch to the PVV. It might have worked to a degree in that the PVV didn’t gain as many as might have been expected. However it possibly cost the VVD more in that ‘died in the wool’ leftists switched to the GL.

  2. Wow! Thank you for the beautifully written and thorough analysis of The Pyrrhic Victory election.

  3. um, what happened to “Now that we’re getting very close to the elections, the polls are pure propaganda. The PVV has led in the polls for well over a year with a very wide margin. They consistently polled 30+ seats for more than a year. They peaked at 36 seats. Now, all of a sudden, some pollers dare to rig their results as low as 24 seats. In a matter of mere weeks.” …..and….. “I’m pretty confident Wilders will win the election by a landslide. What really worries me is electoral fraud…”
    So in the end they got only 20 seats, but you’re no longer suspicious of election fraud? Or just scared to say it. Some fighter.

    • My point is, why is everyone too scared to mention the obvious here, or anywhere on the entire world wide web?!! PVV was consistently in the lead for over a year, then a mere week before elections a plunge in the polls for no reason, then a defeat even bigger than the polls predicted. The obvious conclusion is the (pro-islam, pro-global-socialism) elites were determined not to make the same mistake they made in the US elections and under-do their electoral fraud out of complacency, so they ended up with a blatantly exaggerated lead (for VVD), betraying their panic, their horror at the thought of a “three strikes, you’re out” scenario, after their previous defeats with Brexit and Trump. Come on people, think! And speak up!

    • I need something more than rumours or hearsay before I write about electoral fraud.

      • Of course there was corruption.
        But.
        “Rumors and hearsay” are all you will EVER get.
        EUrope is so much better at voter fraud than we are–and trust me the Left here across the pond is NO SLOUCH at it. They have just been at it LONGER, and (believe it or not) their press is a lot worse than ours.
        Their antifa Fascists are murderous on the opposition as well. OURS would LOVE to emulate them–but here we have that confounded 2nd Amendment thingy……………………………..

      • Of course. That said, I haven’t yet heard a good explanation of what happened. Why did the Dutch change their minds? Or was Wilders never as popular as the polls made him out to be?

      • People have reported many dodgy goings-on, among them a lady who was watching a part of the vote counting and saw inside a ballot box two heavy boxes which the officials said they had no idea how they got in there, saying they’re empty voting papers, but refused to open while she was there; and a cleaner finding two boxes full of votes hidden away after the counting (not counted), which he handed to officials, only to find them hidden away somewhere again the next day, and surprise surprise, all PVV votes. Of course there’s no video/photo evidence because if you whip out your phone you’re quickly kicked out by security. What the Dutch need to do is organise their own exit polls, ring thousands of random homes in each district and run a statistical test on the likelihood that any deviation from election results is due to chance vs fraud. We have no strict evidence of fraud but in light of the sudden inexplicable crash in PVV’s popularity that’s no reason to blindly accept the results. If the results are very suspicious then they need to be questioned, simple as that.

  4. “Dutch travel agencies already noticed fewer people booking holidays to Turkey. I wonder why that is.” Because it’s already here! they say.

    • There were some vague plans in that direction before the elections. Very vague. In the line of: ‘We really have to do something about it. Let’s appoint a commission.” Now the elections are over, Rutte has to keep up his reputation. Thus, expect more soldiers to shout ‘peanut, peanut’ to simulate gunfire on exercises.

    • Perhaps for appearance they will draft all those loyal Muslims. Arm them and give them the leadership training me resources they so sorely need. The looney times. Just Ike 1938- 39?

  5. Other parties always accuse Wilders being a dictator who either does it his way or not at all have to find new lies. Don’t worry; they are a creative bunch.

    “Creative destruction” is what I think they call it.

    Had forgotten the “peanut” anecdote. That sure was funny…peanuts to the apes? Let ’em eat bananas…

    • In the Dutch army soldiers shout ‘pinda!’ (peanut) to simulate gunfire on exercise. Some soldiers shout ‘zakje pinda’s!!!’ (bag of peanuts). That is to simulate automtaic fire.

  6. Are the Dutch screaming ‘fraud!’ and rioting in the streets? No. Therefore I agree with comments elsewhere on GoV, they have not suffered enough yet. They probably voted for Rutte, and deserve what they get.

    I too, thought this election was their last and golden chance to rid their country of a cancer which with absolute certainty will only get worse

    • I think your pessimism has overtaken your optimism. Wilders party is now second only to the VVD in the Parliament.

      The PVV won an extra five seats, and based on H. Numan’s very well presented article, that surely accounts for something and how Wilders has now become even more popular.

      Consider also that money at election time can win over a lot of the usual fence sitters, a commodity that Wilders party was very short on.

      Also, only two out of all those other minor parties come anywhere near what Wilders represents for the open eyed Dutchman – and lady. The others are just offshoots from the major party of Rutte and are deliberately in place to bleed votes away from the patriotic parties.

      But, you can now take it to the Bank that Wilders will be breathing down Rutte’s neck ever more vociferously from now on.

      • I think your optimism has overtaken what should be your pessimism.
        FGS, after decades of moslem infiltration, atrocities and abuse, Geert Wilders, who is the only light in the twilight of the nation, can only get 20 seats, while Rutte gets 33?

        You know as well as I, had the Dutch really been awake to the danger in their land Geert Wilders should have won in a landslide.
        You, and Mr Numan seem optimistic–I see nothing to be optimistic about.
        Still a bit too much pot smoke in Holland in my opinion!

  7. The Guardian is going on ad nauseam about “Jesse Klaver” . I thought that was a bit of a strange name for a Moroccan-Indonesian… now I know why! But not surprised to hear that this Trudeau-clone is an economic airhead…

    And with leftist parties losing so many seats, and Green-left gaining just the ten, is this really a “victory over populism”?!

    After the past week, my gut feeling was that “it was Turkey what done it”… how many PVV voters thought Rutte was now acting tough, and decided they didnt need to vote Wilders anymore?!

  8. In many ways I consider by way of introduction that Mr H Numan is providing a cover for a defeat

    YOUNG SOCIALISTS
    by Felix Quigley

    The issue in the Dutch Election in which Geert Wilders stood as leader of his against Islam-against multiculturalism party, the PVV, did not win the leadership of the state. Wilders did not do badly either in that his party did grow. But he did not win power and power in this era is everything.

    The Young Socialists fights on a platform that Islam is aiming to win the control of the world under Sharia Law. That the Young Socialists must enter the struggle against Islam. That it must do this as a socialist party. That the Capitalist system can bring nothing but poverty and great strife to the world. And that these two things are inseparable. By that I mean that Islam must be fought but this fight against Islam takes place (clearly and unmistakably) in the context of capitalist crisis and capitalist reaction.

    The youth must be won to a struggle against Islam and at the same time must be won to a struggle to replace capitalism with socialism.

    In order to free women and in order to free especially young Muslim women and girls it is necessary to totally defeat Islam. Islam is a complete system of repression. But the capitalist system is also evil in the extreme.

    This struggle to defeat Islam in all of its forms must go along with the struggle to overthrow the bankrupt system of capitalism.

    These two are closely related. We Young Socialists will have to make this case time and time again. (Unfortunarely I am far from “young” but I do look to the young generation to make the change)

    Geert Wilders has fought a very determined and courageous struggle in the Netherlands to defeat Islam. He must be given great credit.

    At the same time as saying that, however, it is clear that Wilders and his party the PVV did not win the power in the Dutch state.

    But that is what they (the PVV) needed. That is absolutely what they needed.

    The power in the state is absolutely the key to everything.

    In the next years you can be absolutely certain that the coalition government, which will at all costs exclude Wilders, will continue to bring in more and more Muslims to form the foundation for Islam and its Sharia Law.

    It follows from this, and from my analysis of just this Dutch election, that this way of fighting against Islam and its dire effects on all societies where it enters will not be successful.

    In that sense this Dutch election has been a great defeat for the progressive people who fight against Islam, who fight to teach the truth about Islam, to fight to liberate the poor under Islam from its terrible effects.

    The horrific snag that we are all facing is that all of these parties and groups, especially Gates of Vienna, Spencer, certainly Pamela Geller, others like Bostom but much less the pioneer fighter and now deceased Bat Ye’or, are tied into a communist and socialist hating mindset.

    Their mindset and method also leads them to lie continually about history which is particularly relevant in this year of 2017 one hundred years after the Russian Revolution. These lies are systematic and organized and that is why none of these can offer a future. A future cannot come from those who lie.

    What lies? I am speaking especially to the method which deliberately confuses Leninism and Stalinism, and proceeds as if there was never a Leon Trotsky and never an opposition to Stalinism. That is a very great lie indeed. I do know very well that people like Wilders are part of this systematic lying about history.

    • …the progressive people who fight against Islam…
      (par. 4th from bottom)

      Talk about lies.
      In all my 67 years I have never, I repeat never, seen so called progressive people fighting islam.
      On the contrary.

    • Dear oh dear, it is the Left that conceived the “Feminist/Multiculturalist/Homosexualist Project” (though they don’t trumpet that third limb so blatantly). Ever noticed that “Antifa” “International Socialists thugs are always front and centre in violently disrupting peaceful opposition to Islam and Islam-critical political parties? That ex-Communist dominated “Green” and other more moderate leftist parties court the Islamic vote and promote Muslim candidates: the mayors of Rotterdam and London, the Swedish cabinet.

  9. Mr Rutt knows he lost. The new configuration so to speak will bring that home in 2017? The changing

    • Jean, yes, deep down he knows that, but he will never admit to it, and it is that failure to admit one is wrong, especially when in positions of authority, that has the West in such a shambles.

    • “Mr Rutte knows he lost”. I beg your pardon? Rutte may have lost a few seats, but if you open your eyes and look at the results, he not only won–he won easily. And that’s not all; two other parties are neck and neck with our man, Geert.

      Why are you people so full of hope, when we have just watched the Dutch people say in effect: “we don’t give a damn about islam or anything else” ?

  10. Thanks! I am wondering… what does it mean that the PVV is not a party, and why don’t they become one to get the funds?

    • That needs some explaining. Wilders himself was a splitter. He left the VDD party, with his seat. He understood perfectly well that others might do the same to his fledgling party. Also that it’s very easy to take over a party from within. That’s why he set up his party entirely different. Most party are a
      ‘vereniging’ (society, club or association). The PVV is a foundation, with one voting member: Geert Wilders. The foundation is controlled by a separate foundation, which has three members (a.o. Geert Wilders). There is a third foundation, open for all others. The members in a foundation have no voting powers. They can only vote with their membership fees. Pay, or not pay.

      This construction saved the PVV a couple of times already. Several PVV politicians have tried to take over the party their way. Hero Brinkman was the most notorious. He was Wilders’ no. 2. Until he decided that the party needed more Brinkman (he called it democracy, of course) and wanted to set up a youth movement. Wilders didn’t agree – as did most of the party. Brinkman left the party, kept his seat in parliament and was voted out of office during the next elections. After that he dabbled unsuccessfully as policeman, and several other parties he tried to set up.

  11. There appear many many signals about voter fraud in the Netherlands. The people are demanding a digital vote now because the paper ballot vote was really a mess.

    There are even boxes discovered with uncounted votes!

  12. “VNL, two turncoats who left the PVV with their seats, weren’t elected. Thierry Baudet was; he leads the Forum for Democracy (FvD), with two seats. I’m not too sure about Mr. Baudet. He looks to me like the younger version of Rutte: about as trustworthy, and without any social conscience whatsoever. He is a diehard libertarian.”

    I’m not actually sure what the impact of this paragraph is. By “libertarian” I presume you mean he disagrees with all government assistance and subsidy, and supports a totally free market. We do have a variant of conservative (or libertarian) in the US that wishes to do away with the welfare state altogether. I myself consider welfare to be extremely harmful in every imaginable way, especially when used to support irresponsible parenting.

    But, the big problem with libertarians is, they do not recognize identity politics or cultural identity, and mostly support open immigration on the fantasy that welfare should be withdrawn and immigrants depend on their own resources. But, importing cheap labor is fine with most libertarians, even if it destroys the native working class.

  13. What we are seeing is the fragmentation of the left into separate islamist and cultural Marxist parties.

    The defeat of the left is a vital and first step to recovery. The centre right can only be tolerated in the short term – to keep out the genocidal left.

    In England we saw a by election in which a safe Labour seat fell to the Tories while the UKIP vote dropped. Yes Brexit has hurt and divided Labour, but in Brexit voting Stoke by election Labour held the seat because UKIP and Tories split each others vote to let Labour back in.

    We in Brexit voting UK are no further forward than the Netherlands or any other continental nation. All we have at the moment is Brexit which is still waiting to happen.

    • As far as the fragmentation of the Left into splintered groups go – I think you may be onto something there.

      What I do not understand is the reluctance of UKIP to broadcast the clear and present danger that Islam represents.

      Why the reluctance?

      On Brexit, it is happening, but apparently you will be getting a watered down version of what was originally voted for by your people. How will that willful disregard of what was voted for abide with most Brits?

  14. The Dutch had the choice between joining the US-UK alliance, or remain inside the German-Turkish swamp. They choose the quagmire, and most of them aren’t even aware to be now there up to their necks.

  15. What baffles me is that the Dutch are generally intelligent people and only need look to parts of France to see the mayhem that is carried out when certain sections of society feel offended, or are they not aware of night after night of cars being set alight and molotov cocktails being thrown at the police when they do riot? The last one was over an alleged rape by a policeman towards one of the rioters. Where was all this anger from them in Sweden when a women in a wheel chair was gang raped? Or over the few young women that were brutally raped and murdered? The Netherlands does not seem to be affected as much as Sweden and France, (although they did get a taste of it with thousands of Turkish rioters), but with their current policies regarding immigration, maybe it will only be a matter of time.

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