Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early May 16 that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who would become prime minister.
The “Hope, courage, and pride” agreement introduces strict measures on asylum seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country. “Deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly,” the 26-page document says.
With hard-right and populist parties now part of or leading a half dozen governments in the 27-nation European Union, they appear positioned to make gains in the bloc’s June 6-9 election. Wilders has been a political ally of radical right and populist leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, and French opposition leader Marine Le Pen.
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