Populism and Euroscepticism in the Netherlands

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 1,7, University of Nottingham, language: English, abstract: This dissertation aims at applying the theoretical concepts of populism and Euroscepticism to two special cases in the Netherlands – the rise and fall of the Dutch populist Pim Fortuyn in 2002 and the Nee-Campaign against the European Constitutional Treaty in 2005. Fortuynism must be understood on the background of modernisation, globalisation, Europeanisation and the consensual politics of the Dutch violet coalition that was the precondition for Fortuyn’s success. This dissertation will also explain the effect of populism on democracies in general and the impact of Fortuynism after Fortuyn’s sudden death on the Dutch political system. Only three years after Fortuyn’s death another populist movement appeared. The Dutch Nee- Campaign against the European Constitutional Treaty topicalised Fortuyn’s issues – asylum and immigration policy – alongside with creating a fear of losing the Dutch’s national identity to mobilise the people against the Constitutional Treaty. Once again the Dutch government did not know how to react and initialised its own “Yes”-Campaign in favour of the Constitutional Treaty too late to reach and inform the people. As a logical consequence the result of the referendum with a serious turn out rate was opposed to the Constitutional Treaty. What do those developments indicate for the Netherlands future within Europe? Can other populist movements arise as easily as Fortuynism or will the government finally learn its lesson and overcome the distance to its people?