Summary of the day
Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) is on course to be the largest party in the Dutch parliament, with 37 seats in a major electoral upset whose reverberations will be felt around Europe.
A GreenLeft-Labour party alliance (GL/PvdA) led by the former EU commissioner Frans Timmermans finished second with 25 seats.
The liberal-conservative Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by the outgoing justice minister, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, got 24 seats.
Much will now depend on a coalition-building process, and whether parties are willing to join a government that includes the PVV.
Wilders said that he wants to be prime minister and that the first thing is a significant restriction on asylum and immigration.
News that Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam party had emerged with the most votes set off alarm bells for Dutch Muslims over what might lie ahead in a country once regarded as a beacon of tolerance.
French far-right politician Marine Le Pen said she felt Wilders had “evolved” and that his results were the consequence of a kind of “normalisation”.
Jan Zahradil, a leading figure within the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, said the “mainstream establishment” had been “left shocked”.
The European Greens said that if VVD joins a coalition with the far-right PVV, it should be expelled from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
Climate activists from Greenpeace Netherlands said they were protesting this afternoon in The Hague, waving banners that say “No climate denier as our prime minister”.
Matthijs Rooduijn, an associate professor of political science at Amsterdam University, said Wilders had not become less radical in his ideas, but his approach was different in the campaign.
Hein de Haas, a sociologist at the University of Amsterdam, said the VVD’s strategy of focusing the campaign on immigration had backfired and legitimised Wilders.
Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in German and European studies at King’s College London, said he suspected “the trajectory of Wilders in power would be that of Haider as a populist entirely focused on gaining power yet struggles to use it”.
Updated
The European Greens said today that if VVD joins a coalition with Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV, it should be expelled from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel, co-chairs of the European Green party, said in a statement that “the VVD has a big responsibility when it comes to possible future government coalitions”.
They added:
Will they choose for a democratic coalition? Or will they embrace a coalition with a far-right party that wants to kill climate policy, to leave the European Union, stop all support to Ukraine, and strip minorities in the Netherlands of their rights?
The Green politicians said that “the fact that the VVD is even considering forming a government with a party that is against minorities, against Europe, against the rule of law, and against journalists is simply appalling”.
If the VVD goes into government with the far right, ALDE should expel the party from its membership for clearly violating its most important statutes.
Updated
