European leaders salute Dutch after right- wing defeat
Prime minister beats anti- Islam candidate
French and German leaders expressed relief Thursday after Dutch voters resoundingly backed the nation’s two- term prime minister over an antiimmigration and anti- Islam candidate in an election that many viewed as a symbolic defeat for the forces of political populism.
After nearly all the votes were counted, Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Free- dom and Democracy ( VVD) was on track to score a commanding victory over Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom ( PVV). The win means the Dutch political establishment retains power as populist parties prepare to challenge the status quo in a leadership contest next month in France and in September in Germany.
“Netherlands, oh Netherlands, you are a champion,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, wrote on Twitter. Merkel told Rutte in a congratulatory phone call that she was “looking forward to continued good cooperation as friends, neighbors, Europeans.”
Martin Schulz, Merkel’s primary rival in September, said he was “relieved” Wilders lost. “But we must continue to fight for an open and free Europe.”
In France, outgoing President Francois Hollande called Rutte’s triumph a “clear victory against extremism.” JeanMarc Ayrault, Hollande’s foreign minis- ter, applauded Dutch voters for “stemming the rise of the far- right.”
Alternative for Germany ( AfD), an anti- European Union and anti- immigrant party, is likely to enter the German federal parliament for the first time in September’s election. Polls show that in France, Marine Le Pen of the right- wing Front National is set to make the presidential election runoff in May after a first round in April.
Though Rutte and Wilders stole the headlines, collectively they won 53 out of 150 seats in the nation’s legislature. Under the Netherlands’ splintered political system, several parties must share power in a governing coalition. Rutte’s VVD captured 33 seats, eight fewer than the last general election, in 2012. Wilders’ PVV was second with 20 seats, five more than the last time.