Our country needs mature leadership in a difficult time. Now more than ever, a stable right-liberal cabinet is needed. That can only be without Geert Wilders. Without the PVV.
You heard me say last week, after the cabinet fell, that I needed some time to let everything that has happened sink in. The hangover was enormous. The cabinet fell, not on substance, not on a stricter asylum policy. We all agreed on that.
The cabinet fell because Geert Wilders once again recklessly handled the opportunity he was given by the Netherlands. Because Geert Wilders once again walked away from his responsibility. As a result, the Netherlands and the Dutch people are once again left empty-handed. And for the VVD, for me, this was a huge disappointment. This was a unique opportunity for center-right policy, with a right-wing majority, and that has now been squandered.
And all this in a time and a world where it is stormy. We face unprecedented challenges, both domestically and internationally. Now more than ever we must do everything we can to keep our country strong and safe. And just now, Geert Wilders walks away again. The cabinet did not fall because there was a fundamental difference of opinion that required us to return to the voters, as happened with the previous cabinet. As unpleasant as that may be, that can happen. No, this cabinet fell because the largest party in the Netherlands, the PVV, has a cowardly leader who prefers to walk away from his responsibility. One can blame me for giving someone, after more than ten years, a second chance to take responsibility. That there will be no third chance is entirely Wilders responsibility. I love the Netherlands too much to ever watch again as the interests of our country and the Dutch people are treated this way.
For my part, Geert Wilders has thus excluded himself from participation in the government. He has squandered his chance again and has once again let his voters down. In 2012 he walked away, while our country, on the brink of an economic crisis, needed stability and leadership. Thirteen years later, little has changed. The cowardly route of walking away is still Wilders style. With his reckless behavior, with his lack of seriously worked-out ideas: time and again it becomes clear that his one-man party is incapable and unable, but especially not willing to deliver. Time and again, the right-wing voter is thwarted or let down by Geert Wilders. Although Geert Wilders prefers to paint the picture that he is constantly thwarted by everything and everyone, the facts are clearly different. Moreover, this victim mentality is unworthy of a leader of the largest and most powerful party in the House.
In recent days, I have also often been asked if I regret that the VVD entered this coalition. No. I do not. I would like to explain why.
Many Dutch people have been voting for a different course on several crucial issues since Bolkestein and Fortuyn.
They are concerned about whether the Netherlands will remain a free and prosperous country. And want solutions to the problems that stand in the way of this. They have felt insufficiently heard for a long time. Because the fact is that politics still has not been able to deliver sufficiently on a stricter migration and integration policy, but also on issues such as a smaller government and significantly less regulatory pressure for entrepreneurs. Mostly because there simply was no majority for it. The Netherlands is and remains a coalition country. And yes, this also applies to my party: we should have negotiated more firmly in the past. But the fact is that there were indeed two times a majority. And in 2012, and also now, Wilders squandered that chance.
The Netherlands must now move on. We need to turn the page. The challenges in our country and the threats to the Netherlands are enormous. This country cannot wait. The Dutch can no longer wait. We must look ahead and talk about where we want to go with the Netherlands.
That the Netherlands has voted for sensible right-liberal policy still stands. Therefore, we must continue to deliver in the coming months, until the elections. The cabinets fall must not mean a standstill. The world and our country are not standing still either. Precisely in this uncertain world, we must urgently push forward on crucial issues in the coming months. Strengthening our defense, building houses, and gaining control over migration. No bickering, no walking away, not spending the whole day focused on oneself, but getting to work. Showing leadership by making difficult choices to keep the Netherlands safe and prosperous. That is what we were chosen for, and that is what the VVD will continue to deliver.
The VVD is convinced that our country needs a strong center-right liberal cabinet in this unsafe world. That is my commitment for these elections. With parties with whom we can form a stable government that keeps our country stable and strong in this unsafe world. With a solid agenda that sends the signal that everyone who lives in our free country must adapt to what the Netherlands has stood for for centuries: freedom and hard work. A cabinet that will deliver decisively on the policy that the Dutch have been voting for for years, but which they did not receive due to a left-wing majority in the House or a fleeing Wilders. A cabinet that stands for a new chapter in politics. In the coming time, the VVD will ask the Netherlands for the mandate to do this.
There is still an elephant in the room. Let me address that right away. I have heard some say that excluding the PVV would mean that the Netherlands and the VVD would automatically turn left. That there is no alternative, that it must therefore be a collaboration with Groenlinks-PvdA by definition. I want to strongly contest that. And that is also why the VVD is already presenting its commitment now, so that the voter can decide on this. Our country needs leaders with a strong vision, rock-solid confidence in what we can achieve together. The agenda of the left is miles away from what the Netherlands needs now. The VVD envisions a very different Netherlands.
While in this unsafe world our freedom, security, and prosperity are at stake, GL-PvdA is making fundamentally unwise choices in that regard.
While it is crystal clear that we must invest in our own defense, Timmermans refuses to support a law that even sets 2% in stone. While we need a growing economy right now, politicians from GroenLinks-PvdA cheer when companies leave. While we need to become energy-independent, GroenLinks-PvdA continues to oppose nuclear energy. While we have a migration and integration problem in our country that needs to be addressed, GroenLinks-PvdA chooses to deny reality. Those are not the choices that keep our country safe, free, and prosperous.
And yes, in the past it was still possible to work well with a responsible center-left party like the PvdA. But if we look at the left radicalism that is gaining more and more ground, I really fear for the future.
The merger with GroenLinks seems to have ripped the PvdA from the center of Dutch politics.
Thus, we see radical left support for campus occupations with all the destruction and costs that entails, some say that October 7 was an act of resistance, and violence is thus nuanced when it fits the ideological narrative. Ordinary, hard-working Dutch people are being demanded to adjust their lives to how the radicals want it. This is not the movement that should have a say in the Netherlands.
The coming time and the upcoming elections ultimately concern an important choice that we as a country must make. The choice of how we keep this country free and safe. About how we build a beautiful and better future in our country. About the leadership needed to achieve that. About the vision and accompanying plans to make that happen.
And for my part, it is clear. We must choose a strong, free, and prosperous country. Choose a cabinet that keeps the Netherlands strong and safe in a world where our way of life is at stake. Choose optimism, decisiveness, and leadership, instead of pessimism, ducking, and looking away.
I ask for the support of as many Dutch people as possible in that struggle in the coming time. Support in the fight to make this happen, starting by making the VVD the largest again based on what we as VVD stand for. So that in difficult times there is mature leadership again. So that a strong and stable cabinet comes that delivers on the right-liberal policy that this country longs for. So that the best times of this beautiful country lie ahead of us again. I am convinced that it can be done. I mean it to make this succeed.