FVD wants Peace, not War

Speech given in the Second Chamber of the Dutch parliament by Pepijn van Houwelingen, 16 April 2024

We are gathered here to discuss the European summit that will take place in Brussels in the coming days. The Prime Minister intends to give an extra EUR 1 billion to Ukraine this year on behalf of the Dutch taxpayer, and for the period until 2026 it will total an extra EUR 4.4 billion. Billions of euros which will only prolong the hopeless war.  More young Ukrainian men will die senselessly and the American arms industry will reap gigantic profits.

How unfortunate it is that the entire European and American decision-making apparatus continues to beat the war drums fanatically.  Escalation is the order of the day. No one seems to think about the futility of the war in Ukraine. No one, except Forum for Democracy, is advocating peace.

Instead, there is talk of a war economy.   Defence Minister Ollongren is calling on pension funds to invest in the arms industry.

The minister for foreign trade even spoke last week of "civilian casualties or bodybags."

The U.S. commander-in-chief in Europe, General Cavoli, has now also figured out, as have countless experts, that the war is unwinnable for Ukraine. The Russian army will soon grow to one and a half million troops.

The Russian military now has a preponderance in shells fired of five to one.  By the end of this year, it is expected to be ten to one.

So my first question to the prime minister is this: if the prime minister continually says that Russia must not win, can the prime minister define what "not winning" means? Is the war objective of the West still to take back the Donbass and Crimea? And is not this goal completely unachievable, and thus fighting on is not precisely life-threatening for Ukraine? Does this not consign that country to complete destruction?

The Latvian president even tweeted dryly a month ago that "Russia must be destroyed."

Is such a total war also the goal of the Netherlands, I ask the Prime Minister? If so, why does Russia need to be destroyed so badly?

Should we perhaps interpret the Latvian prime minister's statement as an acknowledgment that this war is in reality a proxy war by the West against Russia? Does the prime minister acknowledge that Russia is getting more and more support from the rest of the world? Is it correct that with the rise and gradual expansion of the number of BRICS countries, for example, the West is becoming increasingly isolated and thus weaker?

The fear of escalation to a World War is growing everywhere. How high does the prime minister, who after all is more active on the world stage than in the Netherlands itself, rate the likelihood of a Third World War? How does the prime minister judge the fears of many that a war between the atomic powers of NATO and Russia will mean total annihilation?

And what is actually more important to the Cabinet: preventing the total destruction that a Third World War will bring, or preventing Russia from achieving its war aims in Ukraine and thus "winning"?

It is clear: Forum for Democracy wants peace, but the government is leading the Netherlands down a path to war. In any case, we hope with many that the path of unholy escalation, of death and destruction, is abandoned as soon as possible. This is not only in the interest of Ukraine, which is now being abandoned to destruction partly by the Dutch government. It is also in the interest of the security of our own country, our own military and – soon, perhaps - our own conscripts.

Stop the war. Choose peace.