Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, who hopes to succeed her Liberal colleague Mark Rutte as head of government, launched her campaign on Friday, August 18, for the Dutch legislative elections on November 22, declaring that she would "not automatically" reject an alliance with Geert Wilders' far-right party.

After announcing the collapse of his fourth coalition on July 7, due to disagreement over asylum policy, Rutte indicated that he would retire from public life after the election. His People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) has nominated Yesilgöz, 46, currently minister of justice, to succeed him as head of its list. If she wins, she could be the first woman to head a government in The Hague. She would also be the first foreign-born leader to hold this position. The daughter of Kurdish opponents, she was born in Turkey.

On Friday, after the meeting for the current ministerial team following the parliamentary recess, the new leader of the VVD was asked about the possibility of a coalition between the liberal right and Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV). The PVV entered the lower house in 2006, capitalizing on its virulent anti-Islam and anti-immigration stance. Yesilgöz did not closed the door on a possible alliance with the far-right leader, who is a former member of the VVD. "Let's look at his policies first. What I'm interested in, is who will be at the negotiating table, and with what intentions," she said. "The question must be put to him: Will he be constructive or will he exclude himself?"

In any case, there's no question of automatically excluding any political current, especially as Wilders himself recently spoke of the need for a "new beginning," Yesilgöz said. At the time of Rutte's downfall, the PVV leader paid him a heartfelt tribute. A little later, he spoke of the need to forget "ego wars," which was interpreted as a desire to bury the hatchet with the Liberals.

When he formed his first government in 2010, Rutte, then at the head of a minority coalition with the Christian Democratic Party, won the support of the far-right in Parliament. This chaotic experiment ended in failure. Less than two years later, Wilders withdrew his support. The split was made official in 2014, when the far-right leader promised "fewer Moroccans" in his country, which earned him a trial for incitement to hatred and discrimination. He then called for a ban on the Koran and the closure of all mosques.

Wilders, found guilty of the offense of insult, eventually escaped conviction, but he never withdrew his comments about Moroccans, as requested by Rutte. Relations between the two men soured further when, in November 2022, the extremist leader referred to Yesilgöz's origins. He wrote on Twitter: "A liberal of Turkish origin in the ministry of justice: I hope she doesn't lift the measures taken to protect me, as she would naturally prefer to see me six feet under."

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