Quotes about Dutch Politics

Geert Wilders

If one in four Dutch people saying they will vote for my party, it's ridiculous to say we're divisive or extreme.

Pim Fortuyn

Right-wing in Holland is to the Left of the Tories in England.

George III

We regret any country falling off from the cause of withstanding the principles and conduct of those who tyrannize France [the French revolutionists]. The little vigor shown by the Dutch from the beginning of the contest makes their secession of but little real loss.

William V, Prince of Orange, was a very hapless monarch of Holland who was ineffective in dealing with revolutionary discontent despite help and support of England. The King of England was resigned to Holland becoming, like France, a Republic. The English statesmen and diplomats, while aiding William, were also secretly providing money and other assistance to the Patriot rebels, to ensure good relations with the Dutch republican leaders.

Geert Wilders

I experienced first-hand the degeneration of the poldermodel in full force.

Gerhard Schroder

This is one of the gravest crises Europe has ever experienced... An agreement failed because of the completely stubborn attitudes of the UK and the Netherlands.

Geert Wilders

We have an enormous support within the Dutch public. One million people voted for my party.If we would've been extreme, we would've got 0.01 per cent of the vote. We got more than 10 per cent of the vote.

John Paul Jones

The only satisfaction I have is that in spite of the diplomats, I have used my position here to strain the relations between Holland and England to a point past mending. Nothing now keeps Holland neutral except the ship owners who are doing almost the entire commerce of Europe at enormous rates…. But the Dutch people are for us and the war.

The Dutch Diplomats did not want to take sides or offend the English during the American Revolution. But the people, had little use for the English whose support they blamed for the past autocracy of William of Orange.

Conrad Gerard de Rayneval

… in order to emerge from a state of nullity, the [Dutch] bourgeois are asking to take part in government; the most extreme among them wish to participate in all deliberations on public matters …. The more moderate ask only to elect their regents and to have representatives to watch over the maintenance of their rights …

See {639757} for more of his view on the Dutch revolutionary spirit that might infect France. It did a few years later.

Rutger Bregman

Remember: real politics isn't about figureheads and seats in parliament. Real politics is about ideas. And there can be no doubt regarding the extreme ideas that have been gaining ground in the Netherlands for decades.

Van Pierre Alexandre Dumont-Pigalle

If one wishes to make a revolution … it is first necessary to root out the House of Orange and make a new constitution, taking what is good in the French, and even in the American constitution in so far as they are compatible with the physical and the political characteristics of … the [Dutch] people.

Geert Wilders

I am not a consensus politician... This is something that is really very un-Dutch.

Frans van Houten

Sometimes that Dutch consensus approach doesn't move you forward fast enough.

Geert Wilders

I believe I have an important message and we are fighting the same fight, which is the fight for freedom in Australia, in Holland and in Europe.

Dutch Politics Quotes