2023-11-23 01:06:17
Time.news – After 13 years led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Dutch are turning the page: if the exit polls are confirmed, Gert Wilders’s populist, Islamophobic and far-right Freedom Party (PVV) has won the elections. The ‘Dutch Trump’the 60-year-old with thick bleached hair, is however far from certain of becoming prime minister.
The PVV is leading in the exit polls conducted by the Ipsos research agency (a polling institute that has always proven reliable in recent rounds): it should obtain 35 seats (essentially it has doubled the number of deputies compared to the last elections, in 2021, when stopped at 17). Everyone else is far behind.
The progressive GroenLinks-PvdA alliance of the former vice-president of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermanshas 26 seats (previously, the Greens and Labor together had 17 seats) and the conservative VVD of Dilan Yesilgoz he has 23: it is the party of the former prime minister Mark Rutte which suffered a collapse given that in 2021 it had 34 deputies. The NSC (New Social Contract) party, founded just in August by the former Christian Democrat Pieter Omtzigtis fourth with 20 seats.
Legislative in the Netherlands:
Victory for Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam party. #Geert Wilders pic.twitter.com/IhKLQYon0f— Nath-K Soutien FDO (@KaanNathalie) November 22, 2023
The polls before the elections showed an exciting head-to-head between the populist right, the first red-green alliance and Rutte’s VVD party (which has had a woman at the helm for the first time in a few months). But Wilders’ PVV has continued to rise steadily in the polls in recent weeks.
An anti-Islam activist who has promised to ban the Koran and mosques, Wilders has nevertheless moderated his tone during the election campaign, maintaining that Islam is not a priority but assuring that he still wants to close the borders to asylum seekers. He will however struggle to find coalition partners to form a government.
The magic number is 76 seats, so many are needed for a majority out of the 150 total in Parliament. And none of the leaders of the other three main parties during the election campaign said they were willing to govern with him. If the results were confirmed it would be an earthquake destined to have repercussions even beyond the border.
It is no coincidence that the vote was also watched with great attention in Brussels where the outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte, has always played a leading role even in contrast with the countries on the southern shore of the Union. And it was also viewed with apprehension given that the PVV promised a referendum on the Netherlands’ membership of the European Union. It is no coincidence that the Hungarian nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban greeted “the wind of change” and the vice-premier with enthusiasm Matteo Salvini said that “a new Europe is possible”
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