Exit poll gives Dutch PM big lead over Wilders

Ruling party at 31 seats, anti-Islam VVD at 19

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right VVD Party remained the biggest in parliament after an election on Wednesday with 31 of the 150 seats, the first exit poll said, roundly beating the anti-Islam Geert Wilders.

Wilders’s Party for Freedom was tied in second place with two other parties at 19 seats apiece, according to the poll by national broadcaster NOS based on interviews with voters.

The turnout is forecast at 81% against 74.6% in the last election in 2012, according to NOS.

If confirmed, the result will be a relief to mainstream parties across Europe, particularly in France and Germany, where right-wing nationalists are set to make a big impact in elections both will hold this year.

Rutte got a last-minute boost from a diplomatic row with Turkey, which allowed him to take a well-timed tough line on a majority Muslim country during an election campaign in which immigration and integration have been key issues.

Dutch proportional representation means up to 15 parties could win a parliamentary seat and it could take months for Rutte to build a coalition.

Rutte had called the vote a European quarterfinal, before a French semifinal and German final, and warned voters that a Wilders victory would be “the wrong sort of populism winning the day.”

The far-right Marine Le Pen is set to make the second-round runoff of France’s

presidential election in May, while in September’s federal election in Germany, the rightwing, euroskeptic Alternative for Germany is likely to enter the national parliament for the first time