Dutch voters have blocked overwhelmingly the attempt by anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders (pictured) to become their country’s leader.
With almost all of the results of Holland’s general election now known, victorious Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the electorate had rejected “the wrong kind of populism”.
Turnout at the election was 80.2% – the highest it’s been since the 1980s.
After 97% of the votes had been counted, Rutte’s party, the center-right VVD, had a large enough lead to make it likely he will have earned a third successive term as Dutch prime minister.
However, Rutte did have to toughen his stance on immigration during the campaign in order to appeal to voters, leaving Wilders claiming today that “the patriotic spring” for which he has called would still happen.
By this morning Rutte’s party had won 33 out of 150 seats, a loss of eight seats from the previous parliament.
The Freedom Party, led by Wilders, was in second place on 20 seats, a gain of five.
The Christian Democrats (CDA) and the liberal D66 party were close behind with 19 seats each.
The Green-Left party also did well, winning 14 seats, an increase of 10.
The Labour Party (PvdA), lost 29 seats, winning only nine.
Other European politicians have already offered their congratulations to Rutte, including those in France and Germany. Both countries have elections this year, and anti-immigration parties are gaining ground there, but today’s result is likely to boost the hopes of mainstream parties that they can see them off.
In Holland, parliamentary seats are allocated in exact proportion to a party’s vote share, meaning Rutte’s VVD party will need to go into coalition with three other parties. Negotiations for forming the next Dutch government could take months.
