The results of the 2025 Dutch general elections reveal a country trapped in its own past. The far right has gained ground once again. The left is smaller than ever, and the establishment parties present this as a victory for the so-called “moderate centre”. But anyone looking more closely sees something else: not stability, but stagnation. Not a new direction, but the continuation of 15 years of policies that have hollowed out our society.

The core of the new coalition – D66, VVD and CDA – is not the beginning of something new, but the return of the same old recipe: a government that confuses technocratic control with vision, and market discipline with responsibility. A government that listens more to shareholders than to citizens, more to spreadsheets than to people. This is Rutte V without Mark Rutte.

For MERA25 Netherlands, this result is not a reason for resignation but a call to action. Because the problem facing the Netherlands is not only economic or administrative, it is democratic. Power has become concentrated in the hands of a small political and economic elite, while citizens have been reduced to spectators. Elections are important, but they are not enough. Democracy is more than voting once every four years; it is the daily practice of participation, solidarity, and collective decision-making.

Radical democracy means returning decision-making power to where it belongs: to the people themselves. It means that residents can help decide how public resources are spent in their communities. That workers gain a real say in their workplaces. That citizens can hold their government accountable – not the other way around. And that Europe is no longer a project of lobbies and closed doors, but of transparency, civic participation, and solidarity across borders.

The crises of our time – the housing shortage, the climate emergency, poverty, the digital concentration of power – are all symptoms of a democratic deficit. We have handed over public responsibilities to markets and algorithms, to technocrats and consultants. Radical democracy is the answer: reclaiming public power for ordinary people.

That is why MERA25 Netherlands says: it’s time to stop with the political games and set society in motion again. It’s time for politics for the people, by the people. We call on everyone who believes in freedom, equality, and solidarity to break the silence. Join, organise, speak out.

The future will not be written by those clinging to the past, but by those with the courage to begin anew.

The Netherlands does not need Rutte V without Rutte – it needs a radical democracy: vibrant, open, and truly of the people.

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