Progressives often treat patriotism as radioactive. Flags and anthems are left to the populist right. But the centrist D66 party, which almost tripled its seats in this week’s Dutch election and looks set to form the next government in the Netherlands, has shown that another approach is possible.
Under the leadership of Rob Jetten, it used what we might call progressive patriotism – and voters responded. Five strategies defined that success. Politicians across Europe could learn a thing or two.
1 Embrace a can-do mind set
For years, the Dutch left has often sounded like a nagging parent – “can’t do”, “won’t do”, “impossible”. Jetten flipped the script. His message wasn’t: “The world is doomed, so we must stop everything from flying to eating meatballs or even having children.” Instead he told people: “This country can do so much better, so why not get going?”
Jetten’s borrowed slogan, het kan wél, was a clumsy Dutch translation of Barack Obama’s “yes, we can”.But the positive message resonated. It echoed the Yimby philosophy popularised by US writers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson: “Yes in my back yard.” A civilisation obsessed with averting every possible ill renders itself incapable of doing any measurable good.
2 Be proudly patriotic
For years, nationalism was considered the preserve of the right. Expressions of pride were ceded to the far-right Freedom party (PVV) and to farmers’ protests. In progressive circles, saying one was “proud of the Netherlands” risked echoing a Trumpian “Netherlands first” slogan.
D66 broke with that misplaced self-flagellation. It showed that one can take pride in a country ranked among the happiest in the world without excluding minorities or vilifying outsiders. At the D66 party congress, Jetten stood beaming beneath a billowing Dutch tricolour.
In debates he cornered PVV leader Geert Wilders by owning a new kind of pride: progressive patriotism. Not: “You defend the Netherlands while I defend the EU, the UN or international law” but rather: “We defend the Netherlands on our terms.”
3 Take off the gloves when you need to
One thing stood out during the debates. While other left and centrist leaders sought to sound prime ministerial, Jetten took off the gloves. He relentlessly confronted Wilders on the detail of the PVV’s policies, from the climate crisis to migration.
Many leaders have a fear of heated exchanges poisoning the political atmosphere. “When they go low, we go high” remains a mantra for many liberals.
But elections are meant to expose policy differences – all the more so in a parliament with 15 parties. Jetten avoided needless squabbles with ideologically adjacent parties and focused instead on his polar opposite.
4 Tell an unapologetically left wing economic story
Given how many people vote for the right on cultural issues, polling data from the Netherlands reveals how leftwing many are on economic questions.
Most voters across nearly all Dutch parties support taxing labour less and capital more.
Accordingly, D66 campaigned for a more progressive inheritance and gift tax, the abolition of a regressive mortgage interest deduction and, above all, higher rewards for work.
The party even proposed a millionaires’ tax. And it worked. Voters are not afraid of such policies – they want them.
No anti-capitalist posturing, no talk of degrowth – just straightforward, good-old social democratic ideas. Liberals misread the public if they think voters fear such policies.
5 Make a big tent
Progressives who agree among themselves on 80% of issues often fixate on the 20% where they differ. Jetten broke that habit, opting instead to triangulate on major issues, including immigration, by building a broad, if imperfect, voter coalition.
According to Ipsos I&O figures, 20% of those who voted D66 in this election came from the centre-left GreenLeft/Labour alliance (GL/PvdA), 13% from the centre-right NSC, 11% from the rightwing VVD, 9% were previous non-voters and even 7% had backed the far-right PVV.
Since 2012, the overall progressive bloc has steadily shrunk. Jetten managed to reach into the rightwing electorate and build a big tent.
Sceptics will insist that any coalition Jetten leads will inevitably be less progressive than his manifesto. But that misses the point.
Jetten grasped that hope sells. While the other formerly liberal party, the VVD, now more of a conservative force, grew increasingly gloomy and adopted PVV themes, Jetten threw open the curtains. In a country weary of cynicism and uninspired by the left’s gloom, Jetten was able to show that optimism is not naive, that confidence need not be conservative and that hope, properly argued and firmly held, is not a sign of weakness but a source of strength.
Simon van Teutem is a writer for De Correspondent
