Nativism and Nostalgia in the Netherlands

This article shows that employment of temporality in nativist discourse is not limited to just the past. The perception of “threat,” central to nativism, does not only inform historical claims made by nostalgic nativists, but also refers to the present and to the future in which this threat is to be overcome. After defining nativism, the article focuses on nostalgic invocations of the national past. To what (imagined) times do nativists refer when they speak about the “good old days”? What exactly is perceived as attractive about those days? The next section deals with the dystopian and utopian invocations of the future. We focus on the two most influential representatives of the Dutch radical right: Partij voor de Vrijheid and Forum voor Democratie. By analyzing the nativist entanglements of past, present, and the future, this article enriches our understanding of temporality in the dominant debates about national belonging.