While VVD leader Dilan Yezilgös remains firmly on the fence about a possible alliance with the far right PVV after the next election, the party’s young members and some senior officials are clear the party should move to the middle ground.

Mauk Bresser, chairman of the JOVD youth wing, says PVV leader Geert Wilders “has had his chance” and it is time the party focused on the “real problems – the economy, climate and safety”.

Speaking in an interview ahead of the VVD party congress on June 14, Bresser did not mince words in his criticism of Yesigöz’s performance during Wednesday’s debate on the cabinet collapse, calling it “indecisive and rudderless”.

“This cabinet was the result ot the asylum issue and it fell because the PVV didn’t deliver due to a lack of capable ministers and cooperation. Wilders walked away when things got difficult, and that should have been the moment for Yesilgöz to say: “Geert, you have had your chance”, he said.

Bresser accused Yesilhöz of not having the courage to make a decision. “And this country needs decisiveness,” he said. The JOVD is also opposed to Yesigöz’s exclusion of GroenLinks-PvdA from a possible coalition, if the parties are “willing to commit to certain issues, such as the 5% hike in defence costs.”

Asked if the current VVD leader is the right leader to steer the party to the political middle ground, he said changes of leadership are not the solution. “She was always the right candidate to promote the liberal standpoint, and she still is,” Besser said.

Yesilgöz, not Wilders, had to field the most questions on Wednesday, and many centred on her refusal to say whether or not she would work again with the PVV. Both parties are expected to play a key role in the formation of a new cabinet, along with GroenLinks-PvdA.

Criticism of her position did not only come from the opposition parties, but also from former VVD leader Ed Nijpels, who called the alliance with the PVV “one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the VVD”.

“It was a strategic blunder,” he told the Telegraaf. “If Yesilgöz does it again, there will be massive unrest among VVD voters,” he said.

Boost to the far right

According to VVD MP Ton Elias, the exclusion of the PVV may lead to a bumper crop of votes for the far right JA21 or the PVV.

Cooperation with parties on the left is creating “a fiendish dilemma”, he said. “A cabinet of VVD, CDA and PvdA sounds fine but with the merger, we are also getting GroenLinks and all sorts of radicals who sympathise with Hamas,” he said.

The question that is waiting to be answered is when Yesilgöz will make up her mind.

According to former spin doctor Henri Kruithof, she would do well to “ immediately close the door” to Wilders, “or the PVV will again be seen as a credible party to work with,” he said. “But she will have to have a good story because the alternative is a government with PvdA-GroenLinks and D66.”