The high turnout and the strong shift back to mainstream parties in this week’s Dutch general election is being seen by many in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe as proof that, after a year of high political drama, passions have calmed down and that all is back to normal.
The facts initially appear to justify that view. The two main parties, the ruling Christian Democrats and the opposition Labor party, have both made substantial gains at the expense of the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF), the far right, anti-immigration organization of murdered populist Pim Fortuyn, which stormed from nowhere to second place in last year’s polls.
But while Labor leader Wouter Bos may claim that Dutch voters “have spoken, and clearly, for a stable, progressive Cabinet,” he is mistaken. His reading of the electoral rules is colored more by what he would like to happen — a center coalition of Christian Democrats and his own party, which managed to regain much of the support it lost last year to the LPF — than by what actually happened.
Dutch voters may have deserted the LPF in their droves but not because they suddenly decided they did not like its anti-immigration policies. What turned them off was the bitter infighting in its ranks which then brought down the coalition government of which it was a part. The party was seen as irresponsible and inept.
But in moving back to the traditional mainstream parties, the voters have not moved back to traditional, mainstream policies. Rather the political parties have grabbed some of the terrain staked out by the LPF. Both the Christian Democrats and their coalition partners, the free-market VVD, who will now continue together in government, have become distinctly anti-immigration; just recently the VVD agreed that the Netherlands was full. Even Labor has fallen in line with the new mood.
Inevitably that mood and this result will do nothing to calm fears among Dutch Muslims that they are being uniquely branded as undesirables. Plenty of people settle in the Netherlands — Italians, Portuguese, and now increasingly east and southeast Europeans. But it was Muslim immigrants mainly from North Africa and Turkey who were singled out for attack by the late Pim Fortuyn, accusing them of not integrating into Dutch secular society.
It is perfectly right and proper for the Dutch, as for any other nation, to expect that immigrants should do their best to integrate — which means accepting society as they find it and not demanding that it change to suit them. The recent demand from an Arab immigrant leader in neighboring Belgium, for example, that Arabic be made an official language was arrogant and wrong: Language is one area where immigrants must assimilate.
But it is absolutely wrong to stigmatize immigrants because of their religion. Faith is a private matter. The Dutch have never criticized the country’s Jewish community for having different ways and customs to the mainstream. Why do they do it to their Muslims? All that it will do is stir up fear and resentment among Muslims, creating a ghetto mentality which in turn could fuel further suspicion and discrimination. What is needed is an inclusive and conciliatory approach. That means accepting cultural diversity — something Europe has been very good at in the past. But it is a two-way affair. Immigrants should not make outrageous and arrogant demands from those who have given them a new home. That is just as important.
