2023 in Belgium and the Netherlands: The far right and serious crime

For the New European, 2023 was all about the seedy side of The Netherlands and Belgium, drugs, murders and spy scandals – and above all, the far right Geert Wilders winning the Dutch elections. Before that there had been stories about drug smuggling through the port of Antwerp, Amsterdam’s Red Light district, and a Belgian high society art murder. The year ended on another seedy note with this time a Belgian far right politician being accused of working for China, making the question of whether the far right can be trusted to run European countries ever more acute. Expect more sleeze in 2024, and that’s probably the least of it.