2023-11-23 02:30:05
Geert Wilders, of the Party for Freedom (PVV), announcing the results of his party in the legislative elections, in Scheveningen (Netherlands), November 22, 2023. REMKO DE WAAL / ANP VIA AFP
Tension was at its height in all party headquarters on Wednesday, November 22, in the Netherlands, following the suspense created by polls which announced a very uncertain result for the legislative elections.
But the announcement of the first estimates caused a real shock: the Party for Freedom (PVV), the far-right party of Geert Wilders, was promised, according to Ipsos, to win thirty-five parliamentary seats. out of the 150 in the Second Chamber. Eighteen more than in the 2021 elections: a score never before achieved by the party created in 2006 by the populist and anti-immigration MP.
Mr. Wilders’ party was expected to be well ahead, according to estimates with a small margin of error, of the environmentalist and socialist left led by former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans (twenty-five seats). One of the big losers of the election is the Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, liberal) of Dilan Yesilgöz, who succeeded the resigning Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the head of this liberal formation: it goes from thirty-four to twenty-four seats. The other parties of the outgoing government were just as harshly sanctioned: the Liberal Democrats of D66 lost fourteen of their twenty-four seats, the Christian Democrats gave up half of theirs (five instead of ten).
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Netherlands: Geert Wilders, latest spoiler in very close legislative elections
If the Citizen Farmer Movement (BBB) of Caroline van der Plas (six seats) is very far from the performance it hoped for, another newcomer, Pieter Omtzigt, the Christian Democratic dissident who very recently created his New Social Contract , garners twenty seats. But the campaign was ultimately too long for the man whom the polls had presented, until November 16, as the potential winner of the election.
That day, yet another opinion survey suggesting a possible progression of the far right would have triggered, for voters on both the left and the right, a “strategic” reflex which would have penalized Mr. Omtzigt. The former would therefore have wanted to strengthen their camp to counter the risk of a government including Geert Wilders, the latter to ensure that a right-wing coalition would actually become possible. Caught in a pinch, Mr. Omtzigt lost his mind and lost around ten seats compared to initial forecasts.
Wilders: “the asylum tsunami must be stemmed”
Quickly appearing before his activists, gathered in Scheveningen, Geert Wilders promised on Wednesday evening to satisfy the two million citizens who voted for his party and must, according to him, “take back control of their country”. “The asylum tsunami must be stemmed, people must have more money in their wallets”he declared, affirming that there was no longer any question, on the other hand, of speaking “of the Koran and mosques”.
You have 65% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#victorious #Geert #Wilders #assured #form #coalition