Dutch elections

EU MELTDOWN? Anti-EU party's victory in Dutch elections sends SHOCKWAVES to Brussels elite

A populist eurosceptic party has stunned the political establishment in the Netherlands and sent shockwaves across the European Union after a stunning election victory. The Forum for Democracy (FvD), which campaigns for a Dutch exit from the EU, won the most votes in elections for the upper house of parliament earlier this week. This has plunged the country and EU leadership into crisis, just as Brussels struggles with more deadlock over Brexit.

The party is on course to win 12 seats in the upper house which will place the FvD as the largest party in the senate along with VVD, the party of the prime minister, Mark Rutte.

Thierry Baudet, who leads the FvD, which was only launched three years ago, told supporters: “We stand here in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilisation.

“We won because the country needs us. We are being destroyed by the people who are supposed to be protecting us.

“Successive Rutte governments have left our borders wide open, letting in hundreds of thousands of people with cultures completely different to ours.

Dutch elections

PM Rutte’s party wins most seats in Dutch election – early exit polls

The Netherlands’ ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy has won the most seats in parliamentary elections held on Wednesday, according to early exit polls. Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom is tied second with two other parties.

The People Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) has won 31 out of 150 seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections, according to the first exit polls released by national broadcaster NOS.

“This poll shows that people trust us,” Tamara van Ark, VVD campaign manager said, according to NOS.

The VVD's main rival, the right-wing populist PVV movement led by Wilders secured 19 seats in the house of representatives.

Wilders, standing against the “islamization" of Europe, suffered losses in support days before the election, polls showed.

Dutch elections

Wilders’ one-man band heads for Dutch poll destiny

The far-right Dutch politician, who labels Moroccan immigrants “scum” and wants to close every mosque in the Netherlands, lives under 24-hour security. Trips outside, such as a recent tour of Spijkenisse near Rotterdam, are rare and unspontaneous. Hemmed in by armed guards, Mr Wilders’ distinctive grin and blond Mozart-esque hair-do was barely visible to a crowd revelling in a rare encounter with the anti-Islam campaigner, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) rides high in most polls for next week’s election. “If you want to regain your country, if you want to make the Netherlands for the people of the Netherlands your own home again, then you can only vote for one party,” Mr Wilders told the throng in English, recognising that his audience now goes well beyond Dutch voters.

Dutch elections

In rich, low crime Netherlands, why is anti-Islam candidate Geert Wilders so popular?

The economy is up, unemployment is down and some Dutch prisons are so empty the Government has been renting out cells.

"It's not the economy, stupid," Professor Gerrit Voerman of the University of Groningen said, tweaking the campaign message Bill Clinton used in his successful 1992 march to the White House.

Instead, Professor Voerman said, "It's about identity."

Mr Wilders' campaign slogan sums it up: "The Netherlands ours again!"

The nationalist refrain, which echoes US President Donald Trump's campaign call to Make America Great Again, is a theme that could dominate elections in two other European nations this year — France and Germany.

Dutch elections

DUTCH ELECTION LATEST: Surge in euroscepticism ahead of vote leaves experts fearing NEXIT

Maximilian Kunkel, chief strategist for Germany at UBS Wealth Management, said of the Dutch mood: “It is not a scepticism about the euro but rather the European Union.”

And Charles Gave, strategist at GK Research, added: "I do not understand much about the concrete policy in the Netherlands. But if now one of the most tolerant peoples in the world loses patience with the construction of Europe and the euro, then that is an alarm signal.”

...According to the Sentix index that quantifies the likelihood of a country leaving the EU, it puts the Netherlands in fourth place on 3.6 per cent behind the three frontrunners Greece, Italy and France.

Immigration has been at the forefront of voters’ minds during the election with polls indicating that the issue is a key factor for one in three people in how they will determine how they vote.

Dutch elections

Dutch election 2017 odds: Will Geert Wilders win in the Netherlands?

Geert Wilders Party for Freedom (PVV) is on course to win the most seats in the upcoming Dutch election, pollsters and bookmakers agree.

Betfair has ranked PVV’s chances of winning at 4/7, and the latest polls indicate that it could win 25 of the 76 parliamentary seats needed for a majority.

Traditionally the Netherlands is a very liberal country.

However the current global wave of anti-establishment sentiment, coupled with the ongoing migrant crisis has boosted support for PVV.

Dutch elections

Hostility to immigrants dominates major parties in Dutch election

According to recent polls, the two governing parties taking part in the Dutch parliamentary elections on March 15 will be punished for their drastic austerity policies.

Poised to benefit the most from the losses of the free-market, liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), whose leader is Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and its coalition partner, the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA), is Geert Wilders’ anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim Party for Freedom (PVV). Current polls place the latter in the lead, just ahead of the VVD.

The elections in the Netherlands are significant. This country of approximately 17 million people has often been the harbinger of trends affecting Europe as a whole. In May there will be presidential elections in France, and parliamentary elections will take place in Germany this September. Here, too, the far right hopes to profit from the politics of the established parties.

Dutch elections

Dutch elections, a rehearsal for France?

Dutch voters will go to the polls on 15 March to elect their new MPs, in what many observers see as a dry run for the French presidential election one month later. EURACTIV France reports.

The extreme right in France and the Netherlands appears to be running on the same narrative: Europe is disenchanted and wants change.

And this message is resonating with a similar number of voters in both countries, with the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) and the French National Front (NF) consistently polling between 25-30%.

The French and Dutch electoral systems are very different – in the Netherlands, for example, 28 parties will compete for 150 seats in parliament – but while Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen are both out in front in the polls, neither has a realistic chance of becoming their country’s next leader.

Dutch elections

Would-be Dutch prime minister: Islam threatens our way of life

 This country’s version of Donald Trump — but with more extreme anti-immigration and anti-Islam views — is counting on voters to give his right-wing party a chance next month to implement its controversial vision.

“Dutch values are based on Christianity, on Judaism, on humanism. Islam and freedom are not compatible,” populist politician Geert Wilders, 53, said in an interview with USA Today. “You see it in almost every country where it dominates. There is a total lack of freedom, civil society, rule of law, middle class; journalists, gays, apostates — they are all in trouble in those places. And we import it.”

Wilders wants to close all mosques, ban the Quran and seal the nation’s borders to asylum seekers and immigrants from Islamic countries to prevent the spread of Islam.

Dutch elections

AP Interview: Dutch lawmaker insists on 'de-Islamization'

Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker who is at the vanguard of a wave of European far-right populists aiming to take power at elections this year, is pushing ahead with his platform to "de-Islamisize" the Netherlands, despite lawyers saying it could breach the Dutch constitution.

In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Wilders insisted that his plans, which include closing the country's borders to asylum seekers and migrants from Islamic countries, shutting all mosques and banning the Quran, are legal.

And he hinted he could even seek to change the constitution, if necessary. Wilders says, "a constitution is not something that is (set) in stone and can never be changed."

Dutch elections

Wilders at Dutch campaign launch vows to crack down on 'Moroccan scum'

Dutch anti-Muslim, anti-EU party leader Geert Wilders promised to crack down on "Moroccan scum" who he said were making the streets unsafe and urged the Dutch to "regain" their country as he launched his election campaign on Saturday.

Wilders was surrounded by police and security guards during a walkabout in Spijkenisse, part of the ethnically diverse industrial area surrounding the vast port of Rotterdam and a stronghold of his Freedom Party.

"Not all are scum, but there is a lot of Moroccan scum in Holland who makes the streets unsafe," he told reporters, speaking in English. "If you want to regain your country, if you want to make the Netherlands for the people of the Netherlands, your own home, again, then you can only vote for one party."

Dutch elections

Eurosceptic Wilders Becomes Frontrunner of Dutch Election

Wilders' Party for Freedom has led in opinion polls for most of the past two years, although it gained just 10 percent of the vote in the 2012 election.

The controversial front-runner made a name for himself on anti-EU and anti-immigration rhetoric, similar to the one that has thrown Donald Trump into the US presidency.

The 'Trump of the Netherlands' has labelled the March 15 election the start of a "Patriotic Spring" in Europe, where French and German citizens are due to vote later this year, in May and September respectively. The elections are set to deduce whether the anti-establishment sentiment in the region is still strong.  

Dutch elections

Far-right outcast Geert Wilders vows to 'de-Islamise' the Netherlands after taking lead in Dutch polls

The controversial right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders says he intends to govern in the Netherlands after the elections, and expects the electorate to rise up if other political parties deny him that option.

In a rare 40-minute interview with broadcaster WNL, the far-right leader also compared mosques to Nazi temples and the Quran to Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf.

Mr Wilders does not often sit down for in-depth interviews with Dutch media. The founder of the one-man Party for Freedom, or PVV, prefers to control the narrative through Twitter. The “Dutch Trump” knows that the media will pick up news from his timeline.

Dutch elections

What to expect from the Dutch elections in six charts

Geert Wilders and his far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) are part of a wave of populism that has swept Europe, capitalising on fears over immigration, growing Euroscepticism and anti-establishment sentiment. 

Elections in the Netherlands are contested by a patchwork of parties, but a few traditional contenders usually top the bill to form a moderate coalition. This year will be different: eight parties are projected to gain 10 or more seats of an available 150, meaning a narrower lead for the largest parties. It is this more uniform distribution of votes, rather than a dramatic increase in support, that could lead to the PVV gaining the most seats on March 15. 

Dutch elections

Rise of Geert Wilders: How the man dubbed ‘Dutch Trump’ is RESHAPING Liberal Netherlands

Dutch political commentator, Tom-Jan Meeus, said the power of Mr Wilders must not be underestimated as his Freedom Party continues to surge in the polls in the wake of a Donald Trump victory and Britain’s momentous Brexit. 

He wrote: “But while he may not become prime minister, to dismiss him would be a mistake. 

“No political leader has had a larger impact on Dutch politics over the past decade than Wilders, a harsh critic of Islam, immigration and the European Union.

Dutch elections

'KILLER BLOW’ How a Geert Wilders victory in Dutch elections could cause the EU to IMPLODE

Mr Wilders would be likely to take the country out of the bloc, Marine Le Pen the Front National leader would be likely to follow suit, leaving Germany faced with the prospect of funding the cash hole. 

The PVV leader has been placed first in the polls with 31 per cent of the vote, a month before the Dutch elections. 

If Mr Wilders does pull off a shock win, it could pave the way for the far right leader, Marine Le Pen to come to victory in France in May.

This would leave Angela Merkel’s country as the only substantial economy left standing in the crumbling bloc, leaving the Chancellor to fund the giant £35billion-a-year cash hole of three countries with stable economies leaving the European Union.

Dutch elections

Dutch Elections Overtaken by Populist, Anti-Establishment Parties

 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ran a full page newspaper advertisement Monday calling for people to "act normal or leave" the Netherlands if they do not like the country and its values. The message is seen by critics as targeted at Dutch citizens of a non-Western background.

Political parties in the Netherlands have kicked off their campaigns for March 15 parliamentary elections.

Despite the Dutch reputation of being an open and tolerant country, populist Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party are leading the polls. His message is anti-establishment, anti-immigrant, anti-EU and anti-Islam.

Dutch elections

The first big test for this year’s European politics is just around the corner

Dutch voters are heading to the polls in March, the first important election in what will be a key political year in Europe. 

After the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, the Netherlands will give the first indication of whether populism will shape 2017 too.

The Dutch elections "are the prelude for the dominant theme of the year 2017 for the euro zone: Politics," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING in Germany told CNBC via email.

"Sometimes a bit underestimated and in the shadow of the French and German elections, the Dutch elections will be seen as another test case of whether populist parties can make it into government in a core euro zone country," Brzeski explained.