#10 The Radical Right and the Problem of Political Personnel

After each election, the tradition in the Netherlands is to appoint a reasonably neutral and respected political figure who will initiate discussions with different parties to explore the possibilities of forming a new government coalition. The party that secured the most votes is the one that nominates this figure, known in Dutch as the Verkenner (scout). This year marked the first instance where Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom, which obtained the largest vote share in the election, appointed the scout. Last Friday, the PVV selected one of its own senators, named Gom van Strien, to commence talks with the various parties.

On Monday, Gom van Strien had resigned as scout before his task had even started. Over the weekend, it came to light that Van Strien had been involved in a case of fraud and bribery at his former employer, a company tasked with generating income from patents from research conducted at Utrecht University. An investigation by Deloitte revealed that Van Strien may have set up a company with his wife and a neighbour (!) as shareholders to funnel about 2 million EUR from the Utrecht University spinoff company, while concealing their own interests. Wilders said he was unaware of this affair.

It is not the first time that a member of Wilders’s political party is embroiled in a case of fraud. In 2017, the former spokesperson of the party and chairman of the Limburg party group was sentenced to 14 months in prison for stealing 177’000 EUR from the party coffers. At least some of it was used to buy large quantities of cocaine that he got delivered directly to the parking lot of the lower house of parliament. The former spokesperson partly justified his cocaine use by the psychological strain of working for Wilders:

'His questions were commands. If he wanted something, he'd send an email. I had to confirm with 'ok.' If I didn't, within half a minute I'd get a message: 'see email.' If I still didn't do anything, I'd get a text: 'why aren't you responding?' If it took too long again, I'd be called by the secretary. He himself almost never called. In case the secretary called saying that Geert wanted to see me, I had to drop everything and go to his room. There, he immediately stated what he wanted. Sometimes he wanted to know how he could appear on TV on the

...