Good morning. Earlier this week Dutch voters cast their ballots in a knife-edge snap election following the collapse of prime minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government in July. The results surprised many. The anti-Islam, anti-EU populist politician Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) snagged 37 seats in the 150-seat parliament. That might not sound like a lot but the outgoing centre-right party leading the last government had 34 seats after the previous election.
Even Wilders himself, not known for self-doubt, was surprised that his party won that many seats. The results have placed the hard-right PVV firmly ahead of any other party, but still below the threshold for an outright majority. The Netherlands finds itself in a political dilemma: how does a country traditionally ruled by coalitions form a functioning government when most other major political parties have previously declared they will not work with the PVV?
