The centre-right’s remarkable comeback ahead of Wednesday’s Dutch parliamentary election might have stalled due to controversial comments its party leader made about the rights of a gay pupil.
Henri Bontenbal, a 42-year-old former energy consultant, has resurrected his Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party from the doldrums, and polls have shown him tied in second place with former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans, who leads a Green-Left alliance.
But Bontenbal came unstuck on a television programme last week, when he suggested that a gay pupil at a publicly funded Christian school could choose to attend another school if he felt uncomfortable about his sexual identity.
The comments went down badly in a country that is proud of its liberal values.
Bontenbal apologised, saying he was human, but polls suggest he lost five out of a healthy 25-seat projection after his comments.
“If he hadn’t made this mistake last week, he very likely would have been on top of all the polls at this point,” said Tom-Jan Meeus, a political reporter at the Dutch newspaper NRC.
A campaign poster of Bontenbal in the European Parliament, Brussels | Photo: Eddy Wax/Euractiv
It was a rare moment in which Bontenbal made news for the wrong reasons. His low-key campaign has been characterised by quiet decency and unity, an explicit attempt to frame himself as the man to close the chapter on the turbulent, highly polarised recent years of Dutch politics.
CDA European Parliament member Jeroen Lenaers suggested the intense focus on the incident showed that their campaign is “actively working.”
Pro-European footing
Bontenbal has shifted the Dutch centre-right onto a more pro-EU footing.
After years in which upstart centre-right parties such as the Farmer-Citizen Movement and New Social Contract ate into the CDA’s vote, promoting more soft eurosceptic policies, Bontenbal’s party has now made an explicit shift toward a more pragmatic relationship with Brussels.
Remco de Boer, a researcher who ran a podcast about energy policy with Bontenbal for two years, said the CDA leader believes “we really have to look at Europe, at European legislation” and do whatever work is needed.
The CDA has also opened up to the idea of allowing pan-EU debt for defence spending, something the frugal Netherlands has often opposed.
“We say [that] as a crisis instrument within a very dedicated framework, we’re not against [it], we’re open to talk about it. For example in defence,” said Tom Berendsen, another CDA MEP.
At a time when the EU is struggling to find ways to finance Ukraine for the next two years, this could be music to the ears of many.
(cm)
