‘Wrong Kind of Populism’ Fails in Netherlands as Geert Wilders Defeated

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right People’s Party claimed victory with 21 percent of votes, over 13 percent gained by the nationalist Party for Freedom, headed by Geert Wilders, which has advocated banning the Quran and closing mosques and Islamic schools.

Dutch people rejected “the wrong kind of populism”, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said, as he celebrated victory in the much debated election.

The main competitor of the ruling VVD party, the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) led by Geert Wilders, came in second in the election and increased the parties’ presence in parliament from 15 to 20 seats.

The official election result is due next Tuesday and new members of parliament will take office on March 23.

Damon Embling, Euronews: “We mentioned the French and German elections, obviously the Dutch election was the first of these three key moments”.

Mr Rutte had already spoken of the election as a quarter-final against populism ahead of the French and German polls.

In short, the worry is that Wilders’s ideas will prevail even though his party did not. Wilders was going to profit at the polls from what might have been seen as a trend begun by the British “Brexit” vote a year ago to leave the European Union, and America’s election in November of the nonconventional candidate, Donald J. Trump, as president.

In his victory speech, Rutte said: “The Netherlands, after Brexit and the United States elections said “stop” to the wrong kind of populism”.

With votes now counted in all the country’s 388 municipalities, the Christian Democrats and the centrist D66 party were tied one seat behind Wilders on 19.

With Rutte’s allies in the Labour Party (also known by the acronym PvdA) suffering deep losses in Wednesday’s vote, the prime minister’s party will need to form a new governing coalition.

The idea of choosing between dozens of parties in a national election is daunting, especially for those unaccustomed to complex political systems.

Despite a lot of fear-mongering about the far right’s grip over the Dutch electorate, no one candidate had a chance of winning the majority vote. His “patriotic spring” would still happen.

Rutte’s stance on the European Union during his campaign was hardly a full-throated endorsement, summarised by his party as “less nonsense from Brussels, and only things that are in the Dutch interest”.

Marine Le Pen’s eurosceptic Front National party is now leading in the polls in France, however the outcome will not be decided until 7 May, leaving enough time for circumstances to change. “Next time we will be no. 1!” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

“You will see in the coming period, we will take further steps”, the minister added without giving further details.

In the end, Wilders’ policies and rhetoric – he had called Moroccans “scum” and suggested the Netherlands deport some – proved too extreme for voters in a small country that was built on foreign trade and immigration and has been traditionally viewed as liberal and tolerant.