Geert Wilders outlines case for a Dutch ‘Nexit’ from the EU

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party (PVV) that is leading in Dutch polls for May’s European parliament elections, presented a study on Thursday that claims the Netherlands would be better off if it left the EU and he urged voters to support his call for “Nexit”.

The study, by the consultancy Capital Economics, claims the Dutch economy would quickly emerge from its sluggishness to brisk growth, generating billions of euros – or new Dutch guilders – in fresh revenues for debt-laden households.

“Leaving the EU or Nexit will not only restore our national sovereignty but it will also boost the Dutch economy now and in the future,” Mr Wilders said in The Hague. “It also offers the Netherlands a way out of the crisis . . . Nexit will create jobs; the income of our citizens and companies will grow.”

Mr Wilders is one of a handful of populist leaders in the EU – including Marine Le Pen in France; Nigel Farage in Britain and Alexis Tsipras in Greece – whose sharp anti-Brussels rhetoric has helped push them into either first or second place in public opinion polls ahead of May’s Europe-wide vote.

The Netherlands is one of the founding members of the EU, and has long been seen as a core supporter of a more integrated Europe. Yet public opinion polls reveal growing support across the country for a renegotiation of powers with Brussels over a number of policy areas, including access to domestic welfare for other EU citizens.

Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister, in June presented a list of 54 competencies that should remain with national governments rather than be given to the EU, a plan many in Brussels have viewed as the Liberal premier’s attempt to fend off the challenge from Mr Wilders.

Mr Wilders, who rose to prominence in Dutch politics for his vehement anti-Muslim rhetoric, has seen his stock rise as he has shifted his rhetoric towards an anti-EU platform – a theme he continued to hammer home on Thursday, arguing that eurozone bailouts have weakened the Netherlands.

“Nexit means that we no longer have to pay billions to Brussels and weak southern European countries,” added Mr Wilders. “We can save billions by liberating ourselves from EU regulations. We can end the mass immigration and stop paying welfare checks to, for instance, Romanians and Bulgarians.”

But an economist at The Conference Board, a rival think-tank, predicted that a Netherlands exit of the EU would be disorderly and result in high economic losses for the Dutch economy as well as the euro area as a whole.

“The short-term effects of a Nexit would likely be a credit crunch, related to the denomination costs and probably capital controls,” said Bert Colijn, adding: “As the Dutch have a very open economy, it actually profits a lot from its membership of the EU. Around 70 per cent of exports go to the internal European market.”

According to a poll by the Dutch daily De Telegraaf, the PVV would win the most European parliament seats in May’s elections and just one short of the combination of the government coalition.

Mark Pragnell, one of the authors of Capital Economics’ report, said the Netherlands would be significantly richer if it left the EU and the single currency, despite a short period of volatility.

“The economic and policy freedoms that an exit from the EU will give Dutch policy makers, especially in the long term, provide an opportunity for the Netherlands to see rates of growth in prosperity that have looked otherwise consigned to distant history,” Mr Pragnell said. “There are, of course, risks to leaving the union, but they are modest and manageable.”

If the Dutch opted for “Nexit” the country’s economy would be 10 per cent bigger by 2024, adding €9,800 in the pockets of each household over two decades, according to the report.

The report said that most of the gains would come from a reduction in the costs of doing business in the Netherlands, growing exports to emerging markets, greater control of its fiscal and monetary policy as well as ending financial contributions to the EU’s budget.

Capital Economics, a London-based economic research firm, has become a leading voice for eurozone break-up, last year winning a £250,000 prize from a British think-tank for its proposal on how to end the single currency.