Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives a great possibility to the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte to become Geert Wilders’ proponent of the rhetoric about Muslim immigrants, reports Haaretz.

In response to Turkish provocations, it was difficult for Dutch leaders to maintain equanimity and thus, it played into the hands of Erdogan.  The official reason for prohibiting Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, to attend the rally in Rotherham with an aim to convince the Turkish Dutch to support the amendments, was to avoid possible tensions between Erdogan's supporters and their Dutch opponents and prevent the threat to national security.

However, the real reason seems to be the internal policies and the elections to be held three days later in the Netherlands. Marc Rutte, the head of the right-wing party, who wants to preserve the post of prime minister, has been fighting for several months against Geert Wilders' right-wing’s growing threat. Rutte borrowed some rhetorical statements by Wilders about migrants that live in the Netherlands, and it helped him to reduce the difference in the electorate and become a favorite for the first time in the public opinion polls. 

Then Erdogan and his relatives came in play, providing Rutte a superb possibility to show how strict he is against Muslims, at the same time preserving the civil rights of Dutch citizens. "Rutte thus showed a courageous position toward the unstable Middle East leader," the author writes. In any way, the experts believe that the confrontation between the Muslim and the Netherlands Government would strengthen the positions of Rutte’s opponent, Wilders.

"It is not clear what effect the Turkish-Dutch confrontation will leave on the internal policy of the Netherlands, but it is certain that it has strengthened Erdogan and his position in the camp. This is evidenced by the fact that even the leader of Turkey's largest opposition party called on Turks living in the Netherlands to organize rallies and protest ‘against insulting Turkey's honor’, "summarizes the author.