The Winning Formula for a Conservative Revival Around the World

Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on May 17, 2018. (Reuters/Francois Walschaerts)

Commentary

Politics is the art of the possible we are told.

As a new wave of centre-right governments come to the fore around the world, it is important for them to embrace the arrangements necessary to form and stay in government.

This will be the task confronting Geert Wilders as he seeks to cobble together a cohesive government from the latest round of elections in the Netherlands which saw his Freedom Party win the most seats of any party, but still far shy from a majority.

With 37 seats, the Freedom Party has the most seats. But to form a government, a grouping of at least 76 seats (over twice as many) is necessary in the 150-seat chamber.

Because of the perceived electoral consequences of getting “too close” to the Freedom Party, other centre-right parties have distanced themselves from Mr. Wilder.

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Time will tell whether negotiations give expression to the will of the Dutch people, or whether a coalition of left and right parties come together to thwart the Freedom Party and its representation of a significant part of the population.

This is where wisdom as opposed to short-term pragmatism is essential.

Mr. Wilders, to his credit, has indicated a willingness to moderate some of his pre-election commitments to allow a government to be formed, which would be a true expression of the will of the Dutch people.

A rag-tag grouping of left/right parties with diametrically opposed underlying philosophical foundations will not work.

Just look at Israel where, for a short time, there was a government formed on the unstable basis of dislike for the former, and now again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With no real glue to keep the government cohesive, other than a shared dislike of Mr. Netanyahu, it was destined to fail. And it did.

The Dutch powerbrokers would do well to heed that lesson.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses media during a joint press conference with French President in Jerusalem, Israel, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

A Formula for Reviving Conservatism

A potential blueprint for successful centre-right coalitions can be found on the opposite sides of the Tasman Sea.

In Australia, the dominant centre-right Liberal Party always enters into a written coalition agreement with its nationalist, regional National Party colleagues, providing it the deputy prime ministership and a quota of ministries determined on a well-understood numerical formula, along with a few policy items.

More recently in New Zealand, the dominant centre-right National Party entered a three-way agreement with the ACT libertarians and NZ First, providing two deputy prime ministers and the acceptance of important policy positions.

David Seymour, leader of the libertarian-ACT party (R), shakes hands with Winston Peters, leader of NZ First (L), as New Zealand's incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon looks on after signing an agreement to form a three-party coalition government at Parliament in Wellington on Nov. 24, 2023. (Marty Melville/AFP via Getty Images)

This provides credibility to party supporters that such deals are about the delivery of policy, not just status—exactly what the supporters and volunteers want to hear about.

Too often, those who have risen to win seats and positions in parliamentary parties have done so on the basis of not standing for any virtues, values, or principles.

All they know is pragmatism.

Pragmatism has its role in small measures but can never be the guide or principle consideration.

Pure pragmatism ends in tears, and the lack of any real lasting legacy becomes its epitaph.

For whatever NZ First leader Winston Peters’ perceived faults may be, he has achieved a suite of policy initiatives on behalf of his party’s supporters in areas as diverse as re-establishing the New Zealand Forest Service, a register of foreign-owned land, and a regional development fund, amongst others.

In arriving at the arrangement, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not have to so much as mutate any of his National Party policies to make him or his government look vulnerable, or as if the tail was wagging the dog.

There is also no doubt the deal establishing the new government in New Zealand is representative of the expression of the will of the people, as expressed at the ballot box on Oct. 14.

The task for the centre-right parties in the Netherlands and elsewhere is to concentrate on the good of their country, and the will of the people, not on personal and other irrelevant considerations.

Failure to recognise this requirement will spur ongoing decline in trust in democratic systems, and ultimately its demise.

Principle with a seasoning of pragmatism is possible and the art of ensuring democracy’s longevity.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.