Denmark leads, but no-one follows

Submitted by Michiel (Netherlands), Jan 25, 2023 at 07:56

Sadly, here in the Netherlands, which should in most aspects be closely comparable to Denmark, the immigration debate remains almost completely off limits. Oh there is the usual tough talk from leading government party VVD (liberals) but any attempted measure to curb immigration are quickly challenged by activists (funded by the government) and reversed by the courts. The government has ceded basically all decision making power when it comes to this topic to international accords and the EU, and the public debate is still dominated by pro-immigation activists and state media (NPO). In the past years we've broken immigration record after record but nothing seems to matter.

The only thing is that the current coalition government is unpopular, prime minister Rutte having been at the helm for over 10 years and people might just be getting ready for some change, finally.

The anti-Islam party PVV is quite large but will never be part of any government as far as I can see and is also reduced to perpetual shouting from the sidelines without actually accomplishing anything at all.

A few years ago a new conservative party FvD quickly gained popularity and seemed like it could break through the cordon sanitaire. But they imploded in right wing radicalism, conspiracy theories (some of which might be true but are unpalatable to regular voters) and are reduced to just kicking at the establishment and remaining a fringe force.

A more moderate group of members split off from that party and formed a new party called JA21, which is actively promoting the "Danish model" for immigration, so they have my support for now. Of course, all the left wing media and state tv are denouncing even this as being "impossible" and of course "xenophobic". They are doing relatively well in polls but we'll see.

We've been doing this dance since the 90s at least. Pim Fortuyn was murdered for his immigration critical policy proposals when he was sure to become the next PM and after that it's just been failing right wing parties one after the other while the establishment parties are letting in ever more migrants from anywhere.

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