In a political panorama as fragmented as the Dutch one, where everything suggests that no party will win 25% of the vote and four parties are vying for power with the most votes, rising stars are not uncommon. There is no doubt that the Christian Democrat is the fashionable politician in these elections Pieter Omtzig. Although he is not exactly a new face, he is taking part in this Wednesday’s elections with his new force called New Social Contract, after a falling out with his old political force CDA. Some polls predict that he could even become the politician with the most votes and Mark Rutte’s successor, although he is not entirely sure whether he wants to be prime minister.
Omtzigt, born in The Hague in 1974, has been an MP for 20 years, but his bad relations with the Christian Democrats began when he rebelled against his political formation over its handling of the scandal of institutionalized racism that came to light in 2021. Then it was discovered that families of immigrants were being persecuted by the Dutch Ministry of Finance because of their origins (most of them were Turks and Moroccans, whose second nationality was indicated in their file) and were accused of receiving public assistance that did not belong to them in order to to care for their children. Many of them eventually went bankrupt because they had to pay back huge amounts of money to the Treasury. Immigration is a particularly controversial topic in the Netherlands. To this scandal we must add that the calling of these elections is due to disagreements in the outgoing government coalition over refugee policy and restrictions on family reunification. The Minister of Justice and leader of the Liberals, Dilan Yesolgöz-Zegerius She defends more restrictive policies, even though she came from Turkey as an asylum seeker at the age of eight and benefited from Dutch family reunification laws.
Omtzigt fought to defend these families, which did not go down well with his parties. At first he decided to stay in his post as an independent, until August when he took a step forward and presented his own project. He is considered a moderate, communicative and honest person. This could lead to many undecided voters ultimately choosing him as the winner, who needs new blood after 13 years of government led by liberal Mark Rutte, known for his ability to withstand any crisis.
Omtzigt wants to push for reform of the Dutch administration, although he recognizes that the deep changes the country needs will not be easy in the short term. Although he has defended immigrants who have been falsely accused of fraud, he is also in favor of reducing their number to 50,000 a year, including workers, students and refugees. In addition, he also wants to expand the educational offerings in Dutch at universities, as in recent years there have been more and more faculties offering studies in English, which he believes poses a threat to the national language.
Whatever happens in the election, negotiations threaten to be arduous and forming a new coalition is expected to take months government, which could host up to five or six games.