PVV leader Geert Wilders has told broadcaster Nos he thinks there would a national rebellion if his party is kept out of any future coalition government.
The PVV is currently the biggest party in the opinion polls, with support of between 22% and 27% of voters, followed by the VVD and Christian Democrats. However, the other parties have all said they will not work with Wilders to form a coalition government after the 2017 general election.
‘My call is, was and remains that other political parties will have to work with the PVV,’ Wilders told Nos. ‘No one will be able to explain why if that does not happen. I think the public will rebel.’
Wilders went on to say that he hopes any rebellion would be democratic and without violence, Nos reports.
Vienna
The anti-immigration campaigner made a similar statement on Friday after a meeting with other anti-EU parties in Milan. ‘If I am the biggest and the other politicians won’t work with me, then the people will not accept that,’ the NRC quoted him as saying. ‘Then there will be a revolt. We won’t let that happen.’
Wilders would not comment on which parties he considered it possible to form a coalition with. ‘All I have said is that a coalition with the VVD led by Mark Rutte is unlikely seeing as we have been a successful opponent for years,’ Wilders told Nos.
Quite mad
All the big Dutch parties have ruled out forming a coalition with the PVV. Party leaders were also unimpressed by Wilders’ Milan statement.
VVD parliamentary party leader Halbe Zijlstra said the comment was ‘quite mad’, while D66 leader Alexander Pechtold said it was ‘100% populism’.
‘Wilders picks fights with everyone,’ said CDA leader Sybrand Buma. ‘If you look at what he has said about us in the past, it does not exactly make you want to work with him.’
The next general election will take place in spring 2017.