Closely watched election in Netherlands

“The result of this election is an inspiration for many”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement.

The CDA campaign is “very much about moral issues rather than economic issues”, Buma said.

There are two big winners from this election: Jesse Klaver, the 31-year-old leader of the Groenlinks Party and Alexander Pechtold, the D66 leader. “For me it’s a statement, we have to let them feel what people really think”.

Coalitions of two or three parties are needed to govern in the Netherlands as no party has ever won an outright majority. The current ruling cabinet is made up of the conservatives, liberals and the Social Democrats.

Many had been watching the vote in the Netherlands closely, as an indication for how populist parties may fare in other elections in European Union countries.

The PVV was never likely to control or even be included in the government, as most of the other parties have vowed not to partner with it, but having the most seats in parliament would have given it an enormously powerful platform and sent a message about popular support for Wilders’s ideas.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his center-right VVD do not have the majority of 76 or more seats to form the government on their own, but that was not expected to happen in any case.

Rutte’s VVD and other parties have all signaled they would not welcome the provocative Wilders into any future coalition. The so-called “Cordon Sanitaire” was introduced after nationalist party Flemish Interests, previously known as the Flemish Bloc, won big.

“Still, this is not always clear to the voter”. 28 parties participate in the election, of which 13 are now not represented in the lower house. Rutte has also shifted rightwards in a bid to lure voters away from Wilders – hence the prime minister’s strong response to Turkey’s propaganda rallies. Wilders has called for the closing all mosques and for banning the Quran. “I hope he can make a change to make the Netherlands better”, said Wendy de Graaf, who was dropping off her kids at school in The Hague.

Your party always plays along with the left… you are a party that cooperated with the Socialist party and the Greens for more amnesty, for more asylum seekers – among whom there are terrorists – you only import more Islam and I don’t understand that. A far-right win in the liberal, inclusive Netherlands?

Some European leaders were quick to suggest the Dutch results marked a halt to populism in Europe.

The next test? France in May when far right Marine Le Pen seems set to battle it out against centrist Emmanuel Macron. “Every person who is offended by you has more decency in his or her pinky than you and your whole party faction”, he told Wilders.

So fifteen years later, people in the Netherlands were not surprised to hear Mr Trump speak as he did.

Then, shortly before polling day, a diplomatic row exploded with Turkey over its April referendum on extending its president’s powers. Some senior politicians predict it may take until September.

Monday’s debate, plus Tuesday’s vote-eve round-table with eight political party leaders, could yet sway the poll, one analyst told AFP, estimating some 60 percent of Dutch voters remain undecided.