Steve Forbes explains why the shocking electoral victories of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Javier Milei in Argentina may be the beginning of a massive shift in politics across the world—and why entrenched political leaders need to wake up.
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00:00 The results of two recent elections on two different continents have shocked observers.
00:05 If current leaders don't listen, expect more trouble for an already dangerously unsettled world.
00:11 [music]
00:13 Hello, I'm Steve Forbes and this is What's Ahead.
00:16 We get the insights you need to better navigate these turbulent times.
00:21 A few days ago, a Dutch right-wing party finished ahead of all others in the election for the
00:26 lower house of the national legislature.
00:29 The results shocked much of Europe.
00:32 The party leader, Piet Wilders, is regarded by many as a fringe figure.
00:37 He gained notoriety for his strong opposition to massive immigration of Muslims, tapping
00:42 into strong feelings that the country is not assimilating them.
00:46 He also hit political pay dirt in attacking the Dutch government's extreme climate change
00:51 policies that are highly unpopular.
00:55 Now he may become the next prime minister of the Netherlands, a prospect that has the
00:59 European Union's establishment in a lather.
01:03 A similar reaction greeted the stunning landslide victory of Javier Mele a couple of weeks ago
01:09 as president of Argentina on the promise of taking a chainsaw to a bloated, corrupt, all-too-powerful
01:16 government that has set off a hyperinflation.
01:20 Key to his platform was deep-sixing the Argentine peso and replacing it with the U.S. dollar
01:26 as the country's legal tender.
01:28 To that end, he would also shut down the central bank.
01:32 Who knows if Mele has the skills and backbone to do as he's promised to do, but his triumph
01:38 and that of Wilders should send other countries, including our own, a big message.
01:43 Voters are disgusted by policies from traditional leaders, political and civic, that are failing.
01:50 In Holland, for example, the government a few years back decided the country's livestock,
01:56 most notably dairy cows, were imperiling the environment because they're responsible for
02:01 emissions of nitrogen and the creation of ammonia.
02:05 Most immediately, the bureaucratics allege they're endangering nearby nature preserves.
02:10 So it was decided from on high that many, if not ultimately all, farms would have to
02:15 be eliminated.
02:17 To start the process, the government has earmarked $1.5 billion to buy out several thousand farms.
02:25 Farmers rose up.
02:26 Angry protests erupted.
02:28 Agriculture is no small matter in that small-sized country of only 18 million people.
02:34 Amazingly, the Netherlands is the world's second-largest exporter of food, exceeding
02:40 only by the U.S.
02:42 It'll surprise no one who knows anything about the incompetence of government that Holland,
02:47 until recently, pursued policy to encourage the agricultural sector.
02:53 Oops!
02:54 Waging war against food production underscores the absurdity of today's climate policies
03:00 that have wasted trillions of dollars, and if President Biden has his way, will waste
03:04 trillions more.
03:06 You have even some climate extremists advocating that we learn to eat insects.
03:12 What's next?
03:13 Going back to living in caves?
03:15 The destructive economic policies of Argentina go without saying.
03:20 Yet too many leaders today obstinately cling to what's not working, opening the way to
03:26 elections like we had in Argentina and Holland.
03:30 Time for all of them to listen up and do what is right.
03:33 I'm Steve Forbes.
03:34 Thanks for listening.
03:36 Do send in your comments and suggestions.
03:37 I look forward to being with you soon again.
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