My very own Brexit moment: Geert Wilders wins Dutch GE

By Anita Graafland

“Am I right in thinking that your deafening silence means none of you went out to vote?”

I have five voting-age children in my life. And their partners. But the silence was getting to me. It wasn’t until I told them they could tell me in person instead of on the family app that some of them spoke up. And I was right: none of them had bothered to vote, the excuses were manifold.

My family is a mixed-race, mixed-religion and otherwise diverse family. And they didn’t bother to stop the most anti-Muslim, anti-queer racist person my country has ever known from winning the largest number of seats in the country’s new parliament (37 out of 150). If they don’t fight for themselves in the only way they can in a democracy, then who will?

I don’t know what devastated me more: that so many of my fellow countrymen believe Wilders has the answers or that none of the children in my life – which include three Muslims and a trans person – took the time to fight back.

The election result also took me down a notch or two. I knew the Dutch had given the world apartheid and had been big in the slavery trade in previous times, but I honestly thought we’d become better than that. Turns out that we haven’t.

On a slightly more hopeful note, this was only an election outcome. The Netherlands did not vote to leave the EU, 25% of its people voted to give Geert Wilders a tilt at power. The man has ruled his party with an iron fist, but no-one knows how that will pan out when they’re actually in government.

I remember the day after the Brexit vote. We had our landlords come visit us to reassure us we were and remained very welcome in the UK. Friends were ashamed and apologised. And I’ve witnessed the changes since then: some of my friends, especially those who were convinced that the British were simply too sensible to vote leave, have become completely politicised. Others, natural Tory voters, feel disenfranchised and have never bothered to vote again.

Today, I feel a similar urge – to apologise for the short-sightedness of my fellow countrymen. The pride I’ve always taken in my country has been severely dented. And I wonder what this will do to me. I’ve been so focused on what’s been happening in the UK, but apparently there’s work to do in my own country as well – and I’ve got my work cut out for me to persuade my children and their partners/spouses that politics is important and that voting does make a difference. I remember my own father telling me I had no right to complain about anything the government did if I didn’t vote. How come I never instilled the same in my own family? I may have done my bit for diversity, but I feel ashamed.