Dutch voters deliver loud ‘no’ as right-wing hopeful beaten
By Alissa J. Rubin
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The far-right politician Geert Wilders fell short of expectations in Dutch elections on Wednesday, gaining seats but failing to persuade a decisive portion of voters to back his extreme positions on barring Muslim immigrants and jettisoning the European Union, according to early results and exit polls.
While the tallies were still preliminary early Thursday, it was becoming clear that Wilders did not enjoy the support that he and others had foreseen.
If the results hold, they could help stall the momentum of the populist and anti-Muslim forces Wilders has come to symbolize, and which have threatened to fracture Europe.
Voters, who turned out in record numbers, nonetheless rewarded right and center-right parties that had co-opted parts of his hard-line message, including that of the incumbent prime minister, Mark Rutte. Some parties that challenged the establishment from the left made significant gains.
The Dutch vote was closely watched as a key harbinger of potential trends in a year of important European elections, including in France in just weeks, and later in Germany and possibly Italy.
Many of the Dutch parties that prevailed favor the European Union — a rare glimmer of hope for the bloc at a time when populist forces have created an existential crisis and Britain is preparing to leave, or “Brexit.”
“The Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, said ‘No’ to the wrong kind of populism,” said Rutte, as he spoke to a wildly enthusiastic crowd, excited that his party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, had come in first among the parties and lost fewer seats than they had feared.
“Today was a celebration of democracy, we saw rows of people queuing to cast their vote, all over the Netherlands — how long has it been since we’ve seen that?” Rutte said.
At least in the Netherlands, the results betrayed a lingering distrust of turning over the reins of power to the far right.