Two PVV MPs have been using AI to create racist fake news photos and videos and post them online during the current election campaign, NRC reports. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Geert Wilders is reassured by the counter-terrorism agency NCTV that there is "no latent threat" from the Belgian-based terrorism cell that was broken up this week, but he's staying away from the election debates anyway because he has a "bad feeling".

Part three of the @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social guide to all 15 political parties in parliament focuses on three liberal parties: VVD, D66 and Volt. Exclusive to Patreon supporters. www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-...

Geert Wilders has cried off today's radio election debate, and possibly the TV one on Sunday, citing fears for his personal safety. Three months ago the leaders of all 32 Nato countries and President Zelensky were in The Hague at the same time and nothing happened. Flimsy excuse.

It's going to be hard for Trump to throw a tantrum about someone he recently praised as a freedom fighter who was “peacefully expressing the voices and the WILL of the Venezuelan people”, but I’m sure he’ll rise to the challenge.

Three weeks to go to the Dutch elections on October 29. Here's a thread with a very quick run-down of the six main parties (and I'm being kind: there are around 15-18 with a chance of winning seats) and possible coalition combinations.

Mark Rutte's party, which dominated the 2010s, is set for its worst election result for 65 years on October 29 and leader Dilan Yesilgöz's chances of being in charge at Christmas are receding fast. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/clou...

250,000 protesters marched through the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday calling on the Dutch government to take a stronger stance against Israel. To the consternation of finance minister Eelco Heinen, not one of them set fire to a police car. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/in-a...

In part two of the @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social podcast series on the the parties contesting the election, we look at the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal and two parties that broke away from it: the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) and New Social Contract (NSC). www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-...

Apologies for the late posting of this week's @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social podcast due to scheduling clashes. Plenty to talk about including the election campaign, medical evacuations from Gaza and how much capital you'll need for Karl Marx's former retreat. soundcloud.com/dutchnewsnl/...

Rob Jetten's office was targeted by far-right hooligans during riots in The Hague two weeks ago, but the D66 leader says political paralysis is stoking anxiety and distrust in the system. My interview for @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social : www.dutchnews.nl/2025/10/rob-...

This is how the Dutch national press agency ANP labels photographs of snarling far-right thugs waving Nazi-era flags on its website. We have a serious problem.

Blog on the recent far-right riots in The Hague: "When Geert Wilders speaks, he speaks to the hooligans, and the hooligans listen and applaud." wordsforpress.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/i...

Big "Eastern bloc dictator" vibes here.

A peat fire burns on hard dry ground and spreads on a raging wind. Wilders has spent 25 years hollowing out the political debate, poisoning the soil and starving it of nutrients, leaving it as dry and combustible as matchwood. wordsforpress.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/i...

Dutch elections: how right-wing parties have radicalised. Four years ago the statement "the solution to the housing shortage is restricting migration rather than building more houses" was the preserve of the lunatic fringe. Now it's mainstream. www.trouw.nl/politiek/het...

So that's why they have those "no balloons" signs at Schiphol train station. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/09/dron...

The Dutch government is planning to extend the naturalisation period – the time someone has to live in the Netherlands before qualifying for citizenship – from five years to 10. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/09/dutc...

Wilders hails the decision to scrap plans for two asylum seekers' centres in Amersfoort a triumph for "non-violent resistance". Three days earlier a man was arrested for making telephone threats to the town's mayor.

With less than five weeks to go till polling day, we've made a start on our guide to the 15 parties (yes, fifteen) with a chance of winning seats in the Dutch parliament. This week: the PVV, Forum voor Democratie and JA21. Exclusive to Patreon subscribers. www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-...

On this week's @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social podcast: How a right-wing protest in The Hague sparked riots and a vicious debate; plans to deny refugees priority access to housing are criticised by the Council of State; and 42 smuggled puffins are hatched at Blijdorp zoo. soundcloud.com/dutchnewsnl/...

It's weird that British people are so terrified of ID cards. It's also weird that some politicians act as if they'll magically fix problems with people working in the shadow economy. It won't. If anything, it'll make them more vulnerable. www.lbc.co.uk/article/digi...

More riots against asylum seekers' centres in the Netherlands, this time in Doetinchem. Police make seven arrests as rioters throw stones and let off fireworks. www.gld.nl/nieuws/83707...

Far-right protesters clashed with police outside an asylum seekers' centre in Hoofddorp last night, throwing stones and fireworks and burning a Quran. Today the Dutch parliament is debating the riots in The Hague at the weekend. Elections on October 29. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/09/more...

Blog: Dick the fixer. Does the much-maligned prime minister have the political skills to broker a deal on nitrogen emissions? wordsforpress.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/d...

Politicians on the right insisted the riots had nothing to do with politics, but in the words of one banner, it was a day when football hooligans suspended their club rivalries and fought with stones and fireworks to “save the Netherlands” from immigration.

This week's @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social podcast: the budget debate is completely eclipsed by the election campaign, a pay deal puts an end to train strikes, and science has proven that speaking Dutch is easier after you've had a few drinks. soundcloud.com/dutchnewsnl/...

We hebben het vaak in de laatste tijd over de nachtmerrie van iedere ouder. Dit is het ook: een 60-jarige man die contact maakt met een jongetje via computerspelletjes en hem 10 jaar lang uitbuit als seksslaaf. En ja, het gaat om een vluchteling. In dit geval: de slachtoffer. nos.nl/artikel/2582...

Blog on how the Gaza debate is influencing the Dutch election campaign, even though it's not a direct vote winner. wordsforpress.wordpress.com/2025/09/12/t...

Seven weeks to go until Dutch election day seems like a good time to reissue this special podcast episode explaining how voting and government formation works: a simple system that produces fiendishly complicated results. ($3 one-off payment). www.patreon.com/posts/specia...

Willem II winger Samuel Bamba was subjected to monkey chants by Cambuur Leeuwarden supporters during his first match for the club at the weekend. He thanked his friend and fellow German, Tony Rölke of Cambuur, for going over to the home fans with him after the game. nos.nl/artikel/2581...

Latest Dutch opinion polls have the Christian Democrats (CDA) almost level with the centre-left Green-Labour alliance (GL-PvdA). The CDA have the momentum, coming back from 3% of the vote at the last election to 14-16% now, with GL-PvdA on 15-17%. peilingwijzer.tomlouwerse.nl

Another batch of new faces in the Dutch government today. Don't worry too much about learning their names: they're only in office until the next cabinet collapse (or the swearing-in of the next government if they're lucky). nos.nl/artikel/2581...

The Dutch News podcast is back with news of a rare double-ribbon cabinet collapse, wolf gymnastics, a Nazi looted painting that turned up and disappeared again, yet another stay of execution for Vitesse Arnhem, and a comparison of Dutch and Belgian lunch breaks. soundcloud.com/dutchnewsnl/...

Blog on Pieter Omtzigt's Munich moment: the pledge by the four coalition party leaders to uphold the constitution, which turned out to be as worthless as the “peace in our time“ negotiated by Neville Chamberlain in 1938. wordsforpress.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/n...

D66 want to build a "new Almere" in the Markermeer to solve the housing crisis. A lot of people still haven't come to terms with the first one. www.ad.nl/politiek/d66...

A 20-year-old Yemeni snackbar owner has been run out of town in Duindorp, a coastal suburb of The Hague, by extremists who smashed in his windows and daubed “white power” slogans on the walls. nos.nl/video/258093...

I'm afraid the rumours are true. The @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social podcast is returning this week. www.patreon.com/c/DutchNewsNL

Nicolien van Vroonhoven, former leader of NSC, has stepped down as a candidate for the October general election, completing a sequence of U-turns that would have made Max Verstappen's head spin. NSC are projected to lose all 20 seats. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/09/van-...

Thierry Baudet is hoping to make Forum voor Democratie relevant again by naming 28-year-old Lidewij de Vos as the far-right party's lead candidate for the general election. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/09/baud...

In case you're just waking up: the Dutch government, which collapsed in June when Geert Wilders pulled the PVV out over immigration, collapsed again last night after foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp failed to get support for tougher measures against Israel. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/08/no-e...

As expected, it's a busy summer transfer season in the Dutch parliament. NSC asylum spokesman Diederik Boomsma has gone to JA21, pensions expert Agnes Joseph has quit NSC for the BBB and ex-prisons minister Ingrid Coenradie has joined JA21 from the PVV. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/08/nsc-...

Horrible scenes in Friesland as a hot air balloon with 34 people on board crashes on landing and bounces along the ground, leaving one person dead and five injured.

Deep in komkommertijd (silly season), the Telegraaf sends its team of crack reporters to investigate the mystery of a Porsche that's been parked in a suburban street for a long time. www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/b...

Amazing advice for coping in a heatwave: people living on the streets should "keep the house cool" and "only go outside early in the morning or late in the evening".

How much will this catalogue of misjudgments cost VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz? Six weeks ago she posted a tweet accusing pop singer Douwe Bob of anti-Semitism when he refused to play at a sports day for Jewish children because he objected to Zionist posters. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/08/yesi...

The seal sanctuary at Pieterburen in the Netherlands has become so popular in Japan that tiles from its swimming pool fetched up to $500 each at a recent charity auction. A livestream of the pool went viral a year ago following a post on Japanese social media. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/08/japa...

The lights are going out in Amsterdam's red light district. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/07/turn...

For future generations, the philosophical question of the age will be that if you could, would you go back in time and unplug Grok when it was first coded.

It looks like the footballing career of Quincy Promes may be over after he was refused bail while he appeals against his convictions for drug smuggling and aggravated assault. A court said he posed a flight risk if he took up an offer to play in Latvia. www.dutchnews.nl/2025/07/foot...