“A soup for themselves”: Christians can defeat the Dutch far right. But one sentence will have ruined everything

Henri Bontenbal, from almost unknown to almost winning the elections. But the “curse of the Messiah” will be back.

Next Wednesday, October 29th, is the day of elections in the Netherlands.

This electoral act would only take place in 2028, but in June of this year, due to the departure of the PVV (Freedom Party), the largest party in the coalition. There were disagreements regarding immigration.

The last elections, in 2023, were precisely because of PVV, an anti-Islam, anti-immigration and anti-Europe party. He won with a comfortable margin, in almost all regions, but a large part of the country was in shock.

It was a punishment for conservatives, Christian Democrats and liberals who governed under the previous prime minister, – now Secretary General of NATO.

However, as expected, the populist Geert Wilders, leader of the PVV, to be prime minister. In fact, he didn’t even join the Government last year. None of the other main parties agreed to join a government with Wilders.

The prime minister became Dick Schoof, an independent and former head of the Dutch secret services.

Until, because of the PVV, the Government fell four months ago and new elections were called.

“Decent”

It’s time to Henri Bontenbal. Or not.

Your party, the Christian Democratic Party (CDA) has – or had – a great chance of nominating the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands: Henri Bontenbal.

Henri studied physics, specialized in energy transition, worked for an electricity grid operator and made climate policy his main focus.

Now, the climate is not the focus: the CDA leader talks mainly about housing, immigration and health (it looks like another European country, more to the West).

Henri Bontenbal is already a deputy. It was one of 5 deputies that the CDA achieved two years ago.

So how is it that a party that won 5 deputies now appears practically tied with the PVV in the polls?

In fact, Henri Bontenbal is by far the most suitable candidate for prime minister, according to a poll released by .

How did this happen? Through anti-populism, and “decency”, until charity.

The was to explore the phenomenon, this “fatsoenlijk” political style, that is, “decent”.

Henri Bontenbal tries to star in a decent election campaign. He remains calm, he realizes that the Dutch people no longer want tough political battles, they provoke him on stage or in debates and he doesn’t react.

“Freedom doesn’t come for free”, he comments, while announcing that he wants to slightly increase VAT to cover a budget of defense higher. He also wants to increase taxes on health, among others “painful decisions”.

Henri and his seven siblings grew up in a Protestant home in Rotterdam – a city that many in the country associate with hard-working, down-to-earth people. And the center-right voters like.

“A soup for you”

In Veenendaal, where devout Christians are an important part of the population, the churches are full every Sunday and the halls fill up when there is…debate between politicians.

In front of one of these salons, in a van carrying out an election campaign, a poster reads: “We rise to preserve creation”. A young woman, near the entrance, says: “We have a soup for you and your loved ones”.

There are three religious parties participating in the debate: CDA, Christian Union and Political Reformist Party. You tickets sold out quickly. There are not enough places for so many interested parties.

“Curse of the Messiah”

The point is that, in the Netherlands, a kind of “curse of the Messiah” has taken hold.

In other words, over the last few decades, Whenever it seemed like a politician was coming and was going to be the “savior of the country”, he failed. Clearly.

Caroline van der Plas, leader of the populist Farmers’ Party, is the most recent example: people in rural areas put her on an altar but now Plas doesn’t even know if she will get a seat in Parliament (she got 7 in the elections two years ago).

And it seems that the curse already appeared before the elections.

The phrase

Henri Bontenbal’s little political experience may have been essential to what happened to him last week.

In an interview on the channel, the candidate for prime minister saw a video of a Former student at a religious school who is homosexual; this former student revealed that, although he was allowed to say that he was homosexual, this was not always possible in practice. In other words, he went through more difficulties, through moments of discrimination, for being homosexual.

Bontenbal reacted, saying that schools have the right to allow constitutional freedom of education to conflict with the prohibition of discrimination.

The next day, he tried to soften: “I delved into the technical details of the law too quickly. The first thing I should have said is how horrible it is for young people to go through this. Schools have a duty to provide a safe environment; if this goes wrong, the Education Inspectorate will take action”, quotes .

“I make mistakesthat wasn’t right”, adds the newspaper, which highlights that, now, the leader of the Christian Democrats has to say whether he really thinks that homosexuals can be themselves in religious schools.

The newspaper adds: “This proves once again that voters sometimes only really get to know their party leaders in the last days before the elections. And then they realize: Christian parties are… Christian.”

From Belgium, the newspaper warns that Henri’s correction may have come too late: he seemed the obvious winner of the elections but his party, the CDA has already lost 5 places in the polls.

Henri Bontenbal has just over 24 hours to try to turn things around.