I carry a Dutch passport, as do both my parents. I was born and raised in the Netherlands. Bar the years that I was not living anywhere, because I was travelling, I’ve only lived in the Netherlands. Dutch is my mother tongue. I am named after a well-known Dutch legend. I cycle everywhere, with my hands on the steering wheel or off, carrying an apple tree if necessary. I love boerenkool met worst and I eat chocolate sprinkles on my sliced bread, which I prepare at home and carry to the office in a lunch box. I can sing along with the two most known verses of the national anthem and generally apply a direct communication style. All in all, I’ve always identified as fully Dutch and never considered myself not to be part of the Dutch people. That is, until now.

In the past few months and with an increasing intensity now the national elections are rapidly approaching, I’ve seen a growing tendency to subscribe a plethora of ideas and convictions to the ‘Dutch people’. Subsequently, I’ve come across an increasing number of various ideological claims, done ‘in the name of the Dutch people’. Apparently, Dutch norms and values are currently at risk. When pressed for specifications, politicians usually start by mentioning values such as equality between sexes, democracy, queer rights and freedom of speech. Those are values I of course wholeheartedly subscribe to, even though I do not believe those values are uniquely Dutch.

However, more often than not, those claims made ‘in the name of the people’ are used as a stick to beat non-white, queer, Islamic and/or progressively inclined fellow inhabitants of the low countries. And, more often than not, those claims are not justified by facts and figures, but by pleas to ‘gut feelings’ or by outright lies.

The last Rutte cabinet fell because of lies regarding family members who follow family members who follow an asylum seeker who has been granted asylum in the Netherlands (nareis op nareis, in Dutch political jargon). According to then minister of Justice, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, this concerned thousands of people, whilst in reality this happens only a few dozen times annually (ten times in 2023, the year Yeşilgöz made the claim). When after this scam, the Netherlands finally got a new cabinet in 2024, our new Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced – in what is generally regarded as quite an incomprehensible press conference – a tightening of the rules concerning migration, because ‘people are experiencing an asylum crisis’. Well, I wasn’t, which corresponds with the figures of the number of people that annually request asylum in the Netherlands. I do, however, experience a shelter crisis, which also corresponds with figures: because there is a consistent undercapacity when it comes to sheltering, people regularly have to sleep outside upon arrival in Ter Apel, the only asylum seekers’ reception centre the Netherlands has. Does that mean I am not one of the ‘Dutch people’ Schoof claimed to be Prime Minister of?

When in August of this year a young woman was brutally murdered by an asylum seeker, PVV-frontman Geert Wilders saw a significant climb in the polls for his extreme right party that agitates against migration. Asylum seekers were (again) blamed for what is a perpetual problem for women, namely safety, or the lack thereof. However, figures show that the majority of female murder victims falls prey to their (ex)partner, a relative or an acquaintance, not to random strangers and certainly not asylum seekers. Xenophobe organisations such as the PVV and Pegida nevertheless use the difficult position women find themselves in to put blame where it doesn’t belong, whilst claiming that they are ‘protecting Dutch women and girls’. With those kind of friends, one doesn’t need enemies anymore.

After Hamas brutally attacked the Israelian population on 7 October 2023, then Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the Dutch people wholeheartedly supported the state of Israel. This sentiment has continuously been defended until this very day by the subsequent extreme right government, in the name of the Dutch people. However, whilst I will never deny the right of existence of the Israelian people, nor the right of self-defence of the Israelian state when it is under threat, I cannot in good conscience ‘wholeheartedly support’ an apartheidsstaat that is guilty of committing what looks a lot like genocide.

I could go on and on and on. Extreme right protesters who wave a flag that was used by a nazi party, whilst chanting that the Netherlands has to be ‘defended’, only to subsequently vandalise the streets, cars and even the office of a political party. Reporters who choose to only interview white people that complain they ‘don’t recognize their neighbourhood anymore’, which is a euphemism for saying that they think they see too many non-white faces. Ever thought of asking a non-white Dutchie what they think of being surrounded by racists? People who complain about ‘identity politics’ and that ‘you are no longer allowed to say anything’, whilst the only thing that is asked is whether everyone can be who they want to be. No rights have to be relinquished when being asked to call a trans woman ‘she’. At least it never makes me feel less ‘she’.

The Netherlands has chosen, the Netherlands wants, the concerned citizen, the unheard voices…

Please, no more.

Shall I tell you what I want? And then you can tell me whether that would be so bad for the Netherlands.

I want to live in a country that allows everyone to be who they are, to not judge about personal choices people make, where everyone is allowed to love who they want and how they want. I want to live in a country where people cooperate and share what they have. I want to be surrounded by people who are kind and who help each other, but who also have the courage to ask for help when needed. A country where people are trusted. A country where those who are in need are welcome, where the fundamental rights of every human being regardless of who they are, are respected. Where you can disagree with each other, without being hateful. A country that upholds the rule of law (and actually understands what that term means). A country without lies, that listens to science. A country that cares for the future of the entire planet and which isn’t governed by the NIMBY-principle. A country without fear, real or imagined. A country that is capable of a bit of self-reflection, so that it knows not to point to others when it fails and makes mistakes. Those would be Dutch values that would make me happy to be Dutch. And despite the grey skies hovering above us, I tend to believe that this is possible. So, I will vote tomorrow. Again. And I urge whoever has the right to vote, to make use of that right. So that hopefully, by the end of tomorrow, we can wave goodbye to darkness and embrace some light. In the name of the people.