“Pitbull in high heels” can take over the Netherlands

She fled Turkey in an open boat as an eight-year-old, started politically in the far left and has been called a “pit bull in high heels” for her tough attitude.

Now Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius can become the next prime minister of the Netherlands.

November in the Netherlands offers drizzle and gray dust. It is still not enough to take the charm out of Amersfoort – crowned the city of the year in Europe 2023 for its quality of life.

The country’s 16th largest urban area is located four miles southeast of Amsterdam and is a pure orgy of beautiful brick houses, towers and walls and quaint little shops and restaurants.

And soon maybe also the hometown of the Netherlands’ next prime minister.

– We see the new energy and enthusiasm in Dilan. We are quite convinced that we will succeed here, says Maarten Flikkema, local party leader of the right-liberal VVD in Amersfoort.

Kurdish father

He is talking about party colleague Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius, 46-year-old Minister of Justice and new party leader in the VVD that has dominated Dutch politics for the past 15 years.

When the country now holds parliamentary elections on Wednesday, the VVD is one of three equally strong parties hoping to become the largest. In that case, Yesilgöz-Zegerius could not only become the first woman to hold the post of prime minister, but also the first with a non-European background.

She was born in Ankara, Turkey, from where father Yücel fled as a Kurdish human rights activist in 1980. A few years later, Dilan and her mother and sister followed, via Kos in Greece and refugee camps. They came to Amersfoort where she went to school and began her political career – in the left party SP.

– Although she was only a member for six months or so. I only know her as a liberal, not anything else, Flikkema excuses her.

Strict policy

Yesilgöz-Zegerius has made a rapid career in recent years, frequently appearing in debates and Dutch television and making a name for herself as a tough justice minister with migration responsibilities. When the longtime prime minister and party leader Mark Rutte announced this summer that he did not intend to run in this year’s election, it took only three days for the party board to nominate the minister of justice instead.

She wants a strict immigration policy and made headlines this summer when she did not rule out a post-election collaboration with far-right Geert Wilders – although she later clarified that she “not at all” likes his political program.

She started her national election campaign in Amersfoort, although she does not live here for long. And in the left-leaning city, she is not an automatic vote magnet.

– I didn’t even know she was from here, laughs voter Sanny in central Amersfoort.

– She is already far too much Amsterdam, thinks her friend Femke, who instead hopes for a left turn.

“She’s the best”

Yesilgöz-Zegerius didn’t mind being called a “pit bull in high heels” when she acted against harassment of women. Much attention was also attracted when she cut off a lock of her hair on live television, in support of the fight for women’s rights in Iran.

The fact that she herself is a woman with an immigrant background is still not something that is highlighted very much in the election campaign.

– Most people in Holland do not see her as an immigrant. She’s been here so long. She is one hundred percent Dutch. She does not have her position because she is a woman – she is there because she is the best, believes party colleague Maarten Flikkema in Amersfoort.

FACT Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius

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