Official Dutch government reactions to Donald Trump’s victory in the US were slow to trickle in on Wednesday morning, but Dutch MP and anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders was quick to welcome the news.

‘A historic victory! A revolution! We too will give our country back to the Dutch!,’ Wilders said on Twitter. Wilders has made no secret of his support for Trump throughout the campaign.

Other MPs said they were worried about the uncertainty which Trump’s election had created.

Wake-up call

His victory is a ‘wake-up call for all western politicians’ said VVD foreign policy spokesman Han ten Broeke, at an election breakfast in Scheveningen.

Trump’s position on Nato means ‘Europe will have to stand more on its own two feet,’ he is quoted as saying in the Financieele Dagblad. His approach to free trade will also have an impact on Europe, Ten Broeke said.

Labour MP Michiel Servaes referred to Trump’s comments about the future relationship of the US to Russia and Nato, stating ‘Trump has to make clear what his plan is as soon as possible.’

Doubts

Christian Democrat Raymond Knops said: ‘There have never been so many doubts following the election of an American president.’ His election will have an impact on world trade, climate change and international security and ‘Europe will have to work more closely together,’ Knops concluded.

GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver said he is extremely concerned about what the election will mean for the US and the rest of the world.

‘Trump represents politics which sets people against each other rather than uniting them, which ignores climate change rather than tackling it and whose campaign was full of lies, sexism and insults,’ Klaver said.

Trade

Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot told international news agency Bloomberg that Trump’s election shows how skeptical many Americans are about globalization.

‘There are doubts about the advantages that free trade has brought us, but I don’t think they are correct,’ the Telegraaf quoted Knot as saying.