Former VVD MP and minister Klaas Dijkhoff and a number of the party’s campaign strategists have started a think-tank that will develop “concrete and feasible” plans to head off populism and discard traditional political division.

Dubbed Voor Ons Nederland (VON), the new think-tank, which has the support of former politicians Lodewijk Asscher (PvdA) and Gert-Jan Segers (ChristenUnie), is aimed at “the mild majority” or “people who believe in cooperation, progress and a strong democratic rule of law”, the founders told the NRC.

The traditional political division of left and right has been replaced by “democratic and anti-democratic” forces, Dijkhoff said.

Dijkhoff, who claimed the move does not signal a personal return to politics, told NOS the think-tank “could be an action group” positioned between politicians and voters, “making the role of citizens more concrete as an initiator of ideas with a broad consensus.”

The silent majority must carry more weight in the social debate which is now dominated by “people with big mouths on the fringes”,” he said.

Dijkhoff and former VVD spin doctors Bas Erlings, Mark Thiessen and Tom de Bruyne have also enlisted the help of famous names outside of politics, such as national football coach Ronald Koeman and singer Jan Smit to join the move.