Dutch Defense Minister hopes Ukraine aid will continue but 'worried' about PVV stance

Dutch Defense Minister Keesa Ollongren said on Friday that she hopes military support for Ukraine will continue even under the new government led by "anti-European populist" Geert Wilders, who has said the Netherlands should stop supplying Kyiv with weapons, Reuters reports, UNN writes.

Details

According to the newspaper, Wilders, whose far-right Freedom Party (PVV) emerged as the clear winner of this week's elections, called for the withdrawal of support, saying that the Netherlands needs the weapons it gives Ukraine to be able to defend itself.

Ollongren said this prompted concerned phone calls from colleagues across Europe asking if the Netherlands' stance on Ukraine would change.

There is broad support in the Netherlands for our assistance to Ukraine. I hope and expect that the situation will not change in the new parliament. But The PVV is now the largest party and they have never been enthusiastic about supporting Ukraine. Sometimes they were even pro-Russian. So that worries me, Ollongren told reporters on Friday.

Addendum

The Dutch government last week allocated an additional 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) for military aid to Ukraine in 2024, bringing total support since the start of the Russian invasion to about 7.5 billion euros.

The Netherlands this year played an important role in strengthening the international coalition that will eventually supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, and promised to supply several of the planes itself.

Reuters notes that Wilders has in recent years praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he called "excellent leadership skills." But he has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and called Russia the aggressor in the conflict.

It is not yet clear how the Dutch talks on forming a new government, which began on Friday, will develop, but none of PVV's potential coalition partners share his views on ending support for Ukraine, the newspaper notes.