The Netherlands is declining in international importance thanks to anti-immigrant statements by the anti-Islam party PVV and reduced involvement in international [military] missions, according to the outgoing Dutch ambassador to the UN’s food and agriculture agency FAO.

In an interview with the NRC, Agnes van Ardenne also says the minority government’s alliance with the PVV is impossible to explain abroad and that diplomats believe the party is part of the cabinet.
The Netherlands used to have a strong moral compass as a land of peace and justice, Van Ardenne, a former aid minister, said. ‘Now we have a major party which wants to close the borders because our land is full… we are no longer a leading nation.’