What’s the worst thing is that the rhetoric they keep spouting is just verifiably false. They say stuff like “the left has been destroying this country for long enough” even though the last five or six cabinets have been dominated by the largest right-wing party.

It’s a simple trick: take a general issue that is visible throughout the largest part of the population, pick a scapegoat, preferably one you can generalise, then promise a bunch of stuff you’ll never be able to pull off without dismantling democracy.

Currently, the far right is just blaming all kinds of institutions that are supposed to protect our systems. Their plans are all short sighted bullshit that’s so easily checked for its faults that’s it’s just easier to say it’s being criticized for ideology rather than content. Anyone who would take a second look at what has happened for the last two years should be easily cured from their far right views but these voters don’t take the time to actually look into the numbers and plans. Their attention span for politics doesn’t stretch much farther than yelling about immigrants and taxes.

I am not optimistic about the results of today’s election.

Not just the Netherlands. All EU countries suffer from that plague, and quite a few have had them in their respective parliaments already.