Anti-Islam Dutch populist Geert Wilders set for election victory
The far-right anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders is set to become the leader of the largest party in the Netherlands, exit polls suggest.
The Freedom Party (PVV) led by Wilders, who advocates banning Islam and wants to pull the country out of the EU, is set to claim 35 of the Dutch Parliament’s 150 seats, according to an exit poll published by the national broadcaster NOS.
It would represent a doubling of the 17 seats his party won at the last election, and represent another seismic shock through European politics a year after far-right populists took power in Italy.
His election programme advocates the “de-Islamisation” of the Netherlands, a total halt to accepting asylum seekers, migrant pushbacks at the Dutch borders, and a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union.
He has also repeatedly said the Netherlands should stop providing arms to Ukraine, saying it needs the weapons to be able to defend itself.
In a victory speech, Mr Wilders vowed to bring an end to a “tsunami of asylum and immigration.”
“Voters said ‘we are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs’,” a jubilant Mr Wilders said.
But the politician first would have to form a coalition government before he can take the reins of power – and few of his opponents have been willing to work with him before now.
The second-biggest party is likely to be an alliance of the centre-left Labour Party and Green Left, which was forecast to win 26 seats, with the centre-right VVD on 23 and the centrist New Social Contract on 20.
Mr Wilders called on other parties to constructively engage in coalition talks.
“I am confident we can reach an agreement,” Mr Wilders said in his victory speech. “I understand perfectly well we should not take any measures that would be unconstitutional.”
The election was called after the fourth and final coalition of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte resigned in July after failing to agree to measures to rein in migration.
Mr Rutte was replaced by Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, a former refugee from Turkey who could have become the country’s first female prime minister had the VVD triumphed.
Mr Wilders is internationally known for his anti-Islam politics and was convicted by a Dutch judge for discrimination after he insulted Moroccans at a campaign rally in 2014.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has come close to power on two occasions, lauded Mr Wilders and his party “for their spectacular performance in the legislative elections which confirms the growing attachment to the defence of national identities”.
“It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch extinguished that the hope for change remains alive in Europe,” she said.
