PRO-EU parties make strong showing in vote
Right-wingers capture only four Dutch seats
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Pro-european Dutch parties were predicted Thursday to win most of the country’s seats in the European Parliament, with right-wing populist opponents of the European Union managing to take only four of the nation’s 26 seats.
In a surprise forecast, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans became the country’s biggest party in the 751-seat European Parliament, according to an Ipsos exit poll.
“What an unbelievable exit poll!” Labor leader Lodewijk Asscher told a gathering of cheering party faithful.
The poll was published by Dutch national broadcaster NOS after polling stations closed Thursday evening in Netherlands. Earlier in the day, Dutch and British voters kicked off the first of four days of voting for the European Parliament in all of the EU’S 28 nations.
Official results will be announced after the last polling station in the EU closes late Sunday.
The Dutch Labor party was forecast to win five seats, while the proEuropean center right VVD of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gained one seat to win a total of four seats.
“There is a clear majority of people in the Netherlands, if you count them altogether, who want the European Union to continue playing a role in tackling problems that need to be solved,” Timmermans told NOS, speaking from Spain.
Timmermans is a respected former Dutch foreign minister who is trying to become the next president of the European Commission.
The Dutch right-wing populist group Forum for Democracy was forecast by the Ipsos exit poll to win three seats in its first European elections, but those gains didn’t primarily come at the expense of Europe’s mainstream parties. Instead, it appeared they came from other populists. The anti-islam Party for Freedom led by firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders lost three of its four EU seats, according to the poll.
The United Kingdom was the only other EU country to vote Thursday, even as the nation remained in political turmoil over its plans to leave the bloc altogether. No exit polls were expected Thursday night from the UK voting.
The elections come as support is surging for populists and nationalists who want to rein in the EU’S powers and strictly limit immigration. Meanwhile, Europe’s traditional political powerhouses, both conservative and left-wing, insist that unity is the best buffer against the shifting economic and security challenges posed by an emerging new world order.
But populists across several countries have united to challenge those centrist forces. On Saturday, Italy’s anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was joined at a rally by 10 other nationalist leaders, including far-right leaders Wilders, Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally party and Joerg Meuthen of the Alternative for Germany party.