Solidarity in contentious times: The Dutch populist radical right versus development NGOs

Many civil society organizations that work on social issues understand their role in terms of transnational solidarity. However, in recent years transnational solidarity has increasingly been challenged by populist radical right politics, invoking nationalist and exclusionary approaches to social issues, and delegitimizing civil society actors and their solidarity perspectives. Taking the case of the Netherlands, this chapter discusses how Geert Wilders, leader of the radical right populist PVV that held power in 2024–25, has for years attacked transnational solidarity invoking welfare chauvinist and welfare populist claims of injustice against the Dutch people, calling for cuts in development aid. Under PVV leadership, historic cuts to development funding were indeed made. The chapter also discusses how civil society and other actors across society have responded vehemently against this in public debate, but without responding to the welfare chauvinism that the PVV invoked to legitimize the cuts, and with little mobilization of public support. Direct engagement with the Dutch population on the legitimacy of transnational solidarity has thus not happened. This case study illustrates how the research on populism and social policy deserves to include transnational solidarity as a potentially relevant dimension of populist politics around social policy.