What’s next? The Rise and Normalisation of the Far Right in the Netherlands

Until the early 2000s, the Netherlands stood out as an exception in the success of far-right challengers: while populist radical right contenders were gaining significant electoral traction in neighboring countries, they long struggled to achieve similar success in the Netherlands. However, according to Dr Léonie de Jonge, since the turn of the 21st century, the Netherlands appears to have turned into a hotbed for far-right populism, which has become normalised by competition within this political wing. Indeed, the country has witnessed the rise of several influential populist radical right parties, including the Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn or LPF), Geert Wilders’s Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom or PVV), and, more recently, the Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy or FvD), led by Thierry Baudet. In the 2023 general election, PVV secured nearly a quarter of the vote, leading to its inclusion in a coalition government in 2024. With this move, it seems fair to say that the far right has become normalised. In her address to the IIEA, Dr Léonie de Jonge tries to make sense of the meteoric rise of the far right in the Netherlands, and what this might mean for that country, the wider Benelux region, and for Europe. Part of our #WhatsNext series, which sees experts debate, discuss and analyse what's next for public policy as political and social change sweeps the globe. About the Speaker: Léonie de Jonge is Assistant Professor in European Politics and Society at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She also works as a researcher at the Documentation for Dutch Political Parties. Léonie obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2019 for her research on the success and failure factors of populist radical right. In her latest book (2021), she answers the question of why these parties have been more successful in the Netherlands and Flanders than in Luxembourg and Wallonia. In 2021, Léonie was elected Chair of the Steering Committee on Extremism and Democracy at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), and in 2022, she was appointed member of the Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Léonie is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of political extremism and right-wing populism in Europe. Her work is also frequently featured in international news and media.