Geert Wilders has once again made a “total freeze on asylum” the top priority for his PVV party at the general election in October.

The PVV’s 40-page manifesto is fronted by an AI-generated image of Wilders and the 10-point plan for stricter asylum rules that triggered the collapse of the government in June.

In a three-minute video on the PVV’s website, Wilders vowed his party would ”not allow anyone else at all into the Netherlands to claim asylum”, describing refugees as “fortune hunters who are coming mainly for our houses, our benefits and our women”.

He blamed the other three parties in the former coalition – NSC, VVD and BBB – for forcing the collapse of the government and early elections by refusing to agree to implement the PVV’s 10-point plan immediately.

In fact, many of the measures were already in the coalition agreement or two asylum bills drafted by PVV minister Marjolein Faber that were going through parliament when Wilders pulled the plug on the cabinet.

Opinion polls suggest support for the PVV has slipped from 20% to around 18.5% since the government fell, which would still make it the largest party in parliament with between 28 and 32 seats.

However, the other major parties – the Christian Democrats (CDA), GroenLinks-PvdA and the VVD – have ruled out joining a coalition with Wilders’ party after the election on October 29.

EU opt-outs

Wilders claims a total ban on asylum is feasible because ”almost all asylum seekers enter our country via Germany and Belgium, which are safe countries”.

But that would require the Netherlands to negotiate an opt-out from European asylum agreements, which was explicitly ruled out last October by EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johannson.

Wilders said the Netherlands should follow Germany’s lead in stepping up border controls, even though German courts have ruled that turning refugees back at the border is illegal and the Dutch audit office concluded that the temporary checks introduced last November had no impact on the number of asylum claims.

The PVV manifesto calls for all 70,000 Syrian refugees to have their asylum status revoked so they can be sent back to Syria or “another Arabic country”, including around 600 Syrian Christians.

The party would abolish the so-called “spreading law”, which gives the minister for asylum the right to force local authorities to accommodate a proportionate share of refugees, and close all accommodation facilities set up under it.

No support for Ukraine

Wilders also says the Netherlands should abandon the current coalition’s commitment to “support Ukraine against Russian aggression politically, militarily, financially and morally“ and cease all funding to Kyiv. All Ukrainian men over the age of 18 would be sent home.

Settled refugees still living in reception centres, intended for people whose asylum claims are being considered, would be ordered to leave after 14 weeks, even though European and international law forbids governments from deliberately making people homeless.

Local councils would not be allowed to give refugees settled status priority when allocating social housing.

Although the first chapter of the PVV, and two-thirds of Wilders’ campaign video, are dedicated to ensuring “fewer asylum seekers’ centres and less Islam”, the PVV also has policies on housing, healthcare and education.

Cut housing regulations

Wilders wants to speed up the housebuilding programme by simplifying the planning system and scrap planning restrictions that protect endangered species. The PVV also wants to shut down the public broadcaster NPO and turn the media village in Hilversum into a residential neighbourhood.

The party would increase the capacity to build on farmland by scrapping restrictions on nitrogen pollution, though this would again bring the Netherlands into conflict with European law.

Wilders says the Netherlands should enforce its veto rights within the EU to cut the number of conservation zones near farmland, known as Natura 2000 zones.

But the EU cannot unilaterally abolish the rules that require the Netherlands to cut nitrogen compound emissions from construction and farming. They are part of the EU’s obligations under the Bern Convention, a binding international agreement to protect natural habitats that spans the whole of Europe and parts of Africa.

Lower bills

The PVV wants to cut household bills by reducing VAT on energy from 21% to 9% and setting a zero rate for groceries. Rents in social housing would be cut by 10%.

The plans would be funded by cancelling all international development aid and reducing the Netherlands’ EU contributions, though the other 26 member states would have to agree to a Dutch rebate.

The government abandoned a planned rent freeze in June after the Council of State warned that it would lead to housing corporations building fewer houses and private landlords, who hold 20% of the stock, would have to be compensated.

The excess charge on health insurance, currently set at €385 a year and described in the manifesto as a “fine on sickness” would be abolished under the PVV and dental check-ups included in the basic insurance package.

Direct democracy

The PVV wants to abolish the Senate, creating a single democratic chamber, and introduce “direct democracy” through binding referendums and elected mayors. All MPs, ministers and the royal household would have their salaries cut by 25%.

The PVV would cancel the energy transition fund, scrap targets for installing heat pumps and disconnecting households from the gas supply and turn the environment ministry into a “ministry for affordable energy”.

Instead the Netherlands should follow Donald Trump’s lead by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.

Wilders also called for Islamic schools to lose their constitutional right to freedom of religious instruction, a measure that could take a decade to implement under the complicated rules for amending the Dutch constitution.

Schools should restore traditional teaching methods and ”gender propaganda” would be outlawed. Gender neutral passports, which have been legal in the Netherlands since 2018, would be abolished and the principle of ”two biological genders” enshrined in law.

In another policy carried over from the 2023 manifesto, the Netherlands should also rescind its apologies for its slave trading history, which were made by king Willem-Alexander two years ago.