The Long View | Will Geert Wilders Kill Dutch Culture? No Chance.

If you woke up in Britain on the morning of 23 November, you could have breathed a sigh of relief: you were no longer living in the worst country in Europe in which to attempt to sustain a career in the arts. Overnight, the Netherlands had inadvertently stolen the top spot.

Or so it seemed. Holland’s veteran far-right politician Geert Wilders emerged that morning as the surprise victor of the previous day’s general election, his party winning more votes than any other. Ironically for a political outfit named Party for Freedom, Wilders’ manifesto includes banning the Qur’an. It also includes some alarming reading for those many thousands in Holland who work in arts and music: an end to state subsidies for culture and the unmistakable ranging of tanks upon the lawns of the nation’s public broadcasters.  

This has huge implications for the Dutch, of course, but also for the British – close as we are to creative life in our near European neighbour. Wilders’ manifesto pledge on culture is unusual even by the standards of the European far-right, whose leaders tend to want to wrest control of the arts and direct money (yes, less of it) towards projects that will help plaster over the gaping holes in their visions of a past that never existed. The worry, for anyone in Britain working in culture, is the opportunism with which our own politicians might view the cessation of arts funding in a nearby country that has long been held up as a model of the practice. That, and our musicians and directors face the prospect of their work in the Netherlands drying up.

Sure, trouble is coming to the arts in Holland and regrettably so. But legitimate worries as to the Party for Freedom’s election pledges have to be contextualised by the very different way in which northern European politics works. Wilders may have ‘won’ the election, but the vast majority of people in Holland did not vote for him (less than a quarter of the 78% of Netherlanders who voted in the election, in fact).

Seven major parties contested the election and, when extended horse-trading finally results in a coalition government (which could take until the Spring), that coalition will involve at least three parties. Wilders, an extremist, will be sucked into a grand process of ground-giving. Admittedly, given his xenophobic rhetoric offends many in the parties he’ll be negotiating with, it’s unlikely the arts will be high on the agenda.

That’s both good and bad. Looking at recent events in other northern European countries, an optimist could expect Wilders’ culture plans to be scuppered by their own insignificance in the face of the bigger picture. Besides, as support for arts spending has splintered from its traditional social democratic base and is now spread (albeit more thinly) across party lines, it seems more likely Wilders will face opposition to his culture proposals from within his own coalition partners. Then, of course, it has to be voted through.

I’m no expert on Dutch politics, though I’m not bad on the Nordic political systems they resemble, where arts funding models are strikingly different from those in the UK. In countries where state subsidies remain higher than three quarters of an organisation’s income, cutting off that income effectively closes such an organisation overnight. That creates high-profile political flashpoints: sudden murders rather than slow deaths, which tend to upset the protestant principles of consensus on which most northern European governments are founded. Arts types may be soft Lefties, but the sudden closure of cherished institutions like civic orchestras and opera companies is often too much for the traditionalist Right to countenance too, even if some collateral damage is inevitable.

Wilders’ ideas on race will prove unpalatable for many on whom he relies for legislative support. The same, one might optimistically hope, will prove the case for his ideas on funding the arts in a nation that has proved in style what a legacy that funding can create. There’s always the chance he will be pushed into giving up his culture plans in return for support for some of the ‘wilder’ corners of his immigration policy, though as stated, culture is not the biggest of bargaining chips.

Might we face the prospect of a Holland without the Netherlands Philharmonic and with a Rijksmuseum that charges €85 for entry? I doubt it, even if a part of me fears it. As for Nexit, that’s a non-starter. Unfortunately for Wilders, pro-European politicians have an easy weapon with which to defeat it comprehensively. In the event of any referendum, they will simply point west, and ask the electorate how well they think leaving the EU is going for Britain.