What the Dutch just told us about Wales’ future

Simon Hobson, Co-founder of New Wales

In the Netherlands, a young leader, Rob Jetten, has emerged as the fresh face of progressivism. His rise offers a simple but profound message: that politics built on optimism and self-belief can defeat the old cynicism of a tired establishment.

For Wales, still tethered to a United Kingdom that has lost its sense of purpose, that message should strike a chord. Because what Jetten is doing for the Dutch, we must now do for ourselves — find a positive voice.

Wales is capable of its own renewal

When Jetten became leader of Democrats 66, he called it ‘the time for a new generation’. His politics are not of grievance or nostalgia, but of practical hope. His is a liberal belief that democracy must evolve. That climate action and social progress can be delivered by people who believe in the power of their own country to change.

He rejects both the emptiness of populism and the complacency of technocracy. It’s a simple idea, but a radical one in today’s Europe. And it’s exactly what Wales needs to hear.

For too long, Welsh politics has been trapped between dependency and fatalism. Between the limits of devolution and the myth of ‘Britishness’. Even supporters of self-government often argue from frustration: that independence is needed because Westminster has failed us.

True enough, it has. But the stronger case for self-government lies not in frustration, but in faith. Faith that Wales can do things better, fairer and truer to our values.

The United Kingdom today is an imperial project gone stale. Its leaders cling to myths of British exceptionalism while presiding over decline. Its politics is a theatre of nostalgia, performed by the same privileged cast. And Wales, too often, is still made to play the supporting role in someone else’s fading story.

Rob Jetten’s example shows there’s another way. The Netherlands, like Wales, is a small nation in a big world. Yet the Dutch have never confused modesty with mediocrity. They speak confidently of their culture, their language, their global role. When Jetten talks about modernising his country, he does so with the quiet assurance that the Dutch can stand on their own two feet. Imagine if our own leaders spoke with that same self-belief about Wales.

A Republic Cymru will be born not when we ask permission to exist, but when we stop asking altogether. It will emerge when we speak of our national life in the language of ability, not apology.

Wales doesn’t need permission to exist

That shift, from grievance to agency, is where Jetten’s message meets our need today. Wales must rediscover its radical confidence. The same confidence which animated our great reformers, cooperators and educators who built institutions from the ground up. They didn’t wait for London’s approval. They acted because they believed Wales was capable. They knew Cymru could build its own democratic culture.

Independence is not just a constitutional demand; it is an act of civic self-belief. It means showing that our communities can run their own affairs, from energy to education, from housing to health. It means using devolved powers as tools of nation-building, not bureaucratic hand-me-downs.

Every successful Welsh initiative, community renewables, local cooperatives, social enterprises, chips away at the myth that we must always be managed from Westminster.

A modern republican vision

Rob Jetten represents a new kind of liberalism: progressive, pragmatic, deeply democratic. That tradition belongs in Wales, too.

Our radical-liberal lineage saw liberty and equality not as slogans, but as duties to one another. That spirit should define the republican movement today.

A Republic Cymru is not a rejection of England, or of anyone else. It is the continuation of Wales’ journey, towards a democratic, green, plural, internationalist nation. A republic where power begins with people, not privilege; where the state belongs to its citizens, not to a monarch or a class.

Jetten reminds us that optimism can be radical. It can also be revolutionary.

A new generation awakes

The great trap of Welsh politics is to measure success by London’s limits. But our future depends not on Westminster’s permission, but on our own belief.

The Dutch show that nations renew themselves when they trust their people. So, let’s stop saying if Wales becomes independent and start saying when.

Let’s stop waiting for crises in Westminster or the Royal Family to validate our cause. Let’s make our own case: proudly, positively, unapologetically.

We don’t need to mirror the populism of others or the cynicism of the British state. What we need is courage to speak of Wales as a country ready to govern itself.

Like Jetten, we must say: ‘the time for a new generation has come’.

Our moment of renewal is waiting. It only asks that we finally believe.