New Kids On Dutch Political Block Eye Poll Earthquake - Barron's

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It may be the new kid on the Dutch political block, but with just a week before crunch national elections, the New Social Contract party is within striking distance of power.

Tired of more than a decade of scandal-hit coalition rule -- led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right VVD party -- many voters are gravitating to the NSC and its charismatic leader's pledge to clean up government.

"We've had many political failures over the last few years in the Netherlands. The way we've been doing politics has led to lots of crises, but not to any solutions," said NSC party leader Pieter Omtzigt.

"We need better oversight. Our oversight has been sloppy... and in order to fix this we need reforms, including a partial reform of the Dutch state," Omtzigt told AFP in an interview.

Dutch voters are heading to the ballot box on November 22 for snap elections in what will be a transformative vote to replace the erudite Rutte, the country's longest-serving premier.

Rutte's fourth coalition government, an uneasy alliance including his VVD and the progressive D66, collapsed over the summer after a bitter argument about asylum-seeker policy.

Dubbed the "Teflon premier" for his ability to dodge controversy, Rutte's previous coalition resigned en masse in January 2021 over another scandal in which thousands of parents were wrongly accused, in some cases after racial profiling, of fraudulently claiming a child allowance.

It was Omtzigt, then still an MP for the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party, who blew the whistle on the scandal.

Experts say Omtzigt's image as an "honest politician" and a truth-seeker is what's attracting voters to his camp.

"People see him as someone who fights for the good, while most politicians are bad. Many people see him as a sort of Messiah," political analyst Julia Wouters told AFP.

Even outside the Netherlands, Omtzigt is known for his outspoken support for the protection of investigative journalists and whistleblowers.

He led the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly oversight of the probe into the assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia -- a case in which he says "justice still needs to be done".

He has also been in contact with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Omtzigt and the NSC launched their 100-page manifesto only a few weeks before election day.

It features a strong focus on the key campaign theme of "bestaanzekerheid", which roughly translated means "social or livelihood security."

This means improving living standards for Dutch citizens but also, some say, strengthening Dutch identity within the small country's borders.

One of the manifesto's more controversial pledges is to introduce a cap on foreign migration at 50,000 per year -- including skilled expat migrants, foreign students, refugees or asylum-seekers.

The reason, said Omtzigt, is to reduce massive housing shortages in the Netherlands, which he said could not keep up with current demand.

"It's not like we don't want immigrants anymore. It's to keep it manageable," said Omtzigt.

He also proposes toning down the use of English in Dutch universities, where some 40 percent of students are from overseas.

"That's a bit too much. Sure, we want foreign students here, but one of the things we propose is to use more Dutch as a language."

"All these people who study here will actually work in the Dutch public sector. They need to be able to write in Dutch," said Omtzigt, who himself studied in Britain and Italy and speaks both English and Italian.

Omtzigt has refused to say whether he will become PM if his party wins the polls, telling AFP: "To us, it's secondary who becomes the prime minister, who the ministers will be."

"People find it strange because in politics they only want power. We don't want power, we want influence. We are more interested in the reforms that we are proposing."

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