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Summary of the evening
Dutch voters cast their ballots in a snap parliamentary election on Wednesday called after the collapse of the outgoing coalition government headed by Mark Rutte.
Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) is on course to be the largest party in the Dutch parliament, according to exit polls, in a major electoral upset whose reverberations will be felt around Europe.
It is unclear whether Wilders – who has always been shut out of government – will be able to win enough support to form a coalition. He said this evening that “no party can ignore us any longer”.
Exit polling put the PVV at 35 seats. The Green-Labour alliance, led by Frans Timmermans, has 25 seats, while the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, got 24 seats, according to the polling.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said “it is big lesson to politicians. They haven’t listened enough to the people and haven’t offered enough workable solutions”.
Far right figures from across the continent, including Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini and Santiago Abascal, celebrated the PVV’s performance.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said that “the winds of change are here”.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the Dutch election is “a reminder to progressives everywhere – the continued threat of the far-right is real and on our doorstep”.
Read more here and stay tuned for more coverage on the Guardian site.
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