The Catholic church may have enough scandals of its own to look into but it is worth asking why the Netherlands’ Catholics voted en masse for Geert Wilders, writes Giles Scott-Smith in The Holland Bureau.

The figures are striking: In Limburg, North Brabant and Zeeland the CDA lost a total of 350,000 votes on June 9. The NRC magazine produced a travelogue through the region that gave some insight.
Notable is the fact that outside of Maxime Verhagen there are no prominent catholics left at the top of the CDA. The three dissident MPs who rejected working with the PVV a couple of weeks ago were all protestants. The parliamentary party now consists of only one third with a catholic background. And surveys confirm that catholic CDA voters have much less problem with the VVD-CDA-PVV deal than protestants.
Limburg has a long tradition of turning its back on The Hague. It only became a definite part of the Netherlands in 1839. The sense is strong that national regulations don’t fit the southern context.
Interesting example is the tolerance of soft drug coffeeshops, which has become a major issue in Maastricht and other southern cities as thousands of drug tourists come over the border. Or the ‘ontpoldering’ – flooding – of a part of the Zeeland coast along the West Scheldt to allow for larger container ships to reach Antwerp, which is a tough emotional call for a region still with memories of the 1953 flood disaster.
Then there is the continuing secularisation of the population as a whole. The Central Statistics Bureau reported in ‘Religie aan het begin van de 21ste eeuw’ that in 2008 42% were not linked to any church, as against 29% catholics, 19% protestants, 4% muslims, and 6% ‘other groups’. But of the 48% catholics and protestants, only one in five regularly attend church.
What this all means for the CDA is unclear. Since the 1960s the trend is downwards in electoral results. Commentator Jan Dirk Snel calls for the CDA to turn itself into a modern conservative party, letting its moralist position go in favour of a mix of christian values and modern secularism.
But the writing could already be on the wall. As a VVD politician in Limburg says, ‘Look out – our voters are more to the right than we are. If a right-wing cabinet fails, Wilders have the largest party next time around.’