Dutch prime minister trounces anti-islam Wilders in exit poll
Leader’s victory over ‘wrong sort of populism’ in litmus test for Europe
Netherlands’ main exit poll suggested last night that prime minister Mark Rutte easily defeated antiislam leader Geert Wilders in yesterday’s Dutch parliamentary election, which was seen as a litmus test for populism in Europe.
The Ipsos exit poll indicated Mr Rutte’s party won 31 seats in the 150-place legislature, 12 more than Mr Wilders’s party, which shared second place with two other parties.
“I am so proud at what has happened and happy that we have been given the trust again by voters,” Tamara van Ark, campaign leader of Mr Rutte’s liberal VVD party said.
With France and Germany facing elections in the months ahead, Mr Rutte hoped to slow the momentum of what he called the “wrong sort of populism” after last’s year British vote to leave the European Union and the election of US president Donald Trump.
“This is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism,” Mr Rutte said after voting.
Mr Wilders had insisted that whatever the result of yesterday’s election, the kind of populist politics he and others in Europe represent is not going away.
“The genie will not go back into the bottle. People feel misrepresented,” he said, predicting the feeling would surface in the French and Germany elections.
But the first indications were still bad.
The left-wing Dutch Labour Party of eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem plunged from 38 seats at the last electhe tion to just nine, according to the poll. The party appeared to be hammered by its supporters for its role over the past four years in pushing through a tough austerity package as junior member in a two-party Cabinet with the centre-right VVD party of Mr Rutte.
Mr Rutte had framed the election as a choice between continuity and chaos, portraying himself as a safe custodian of the nation’s economic recovery and casting Mr Wilders as a far-right radical who was unprepared to make tough decisions.
The chance of Mr Wilders becoming prime minister in the Netherlands, where a proportional representation voting system all but guarantees coalition governments, was remote, even if his party had placed first in the election.
All mainstream parties, including Mr Rutte’s VVD, had ruled out working with Mr Wilders and his Party for Freedom.
Mr Wilders’s one-page election manifesto included pledges to close borders to immigrants from Muslim nations, shutter mosques and ban the Koran, as well as to take the Netherlands out of the European Union.
The campaign’s final days were overshadowed by a diplomatic crisis between the Dutch and Turkish governments.
It erupted over the refusal of the Netherlands to let two Turkish government ministers address rallies about a referendum next month that could give Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan more powers.
The crisis nevertheless gave Mr Rutte an opportunity to refuse to bow to foreign pressure, a stance with widespread backing in the nation.
“It is my task to keep the nation safe and stable and deal with these kinds of people,” Mr Rutte said.
He has driven through unpopular austerity measures over the past four years, but the Dutch economic recovery has gathered pace and unemployment has fallen fast.
Mr Wilders, meanwhile, tapped into discontent among voters who say they are not benefiting from economic recovery.