The Party for Freedom (PVV), led by right-wing Geert Wilders, emerged victorious in early parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, held this Wednesday (22), and will be the largest party in Parliament, according to data from the official count, which give it 37 of the 150 seats, ahead of the left-wing bloc PvdA-GL (Party of Labor), with 25 seats, and the liberals of the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy), with 24.
With the count completed, the number of parties that won at least one seat in the Dutch Parliament rises to 15 of the 26 groups that competed in yesterday’s general elections. The result also allows the winner to begin the process of searching for coalition partners, as it is still necessary to form a new government in the country.
The PVV achieved the largest number of seats in the legislative elections, with 20 more than the 17 it had until now. Far behind is the left-wing bloc formed by PvdA and GroenLinks (GL), with the former vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, in the political leadership. He got eight more seats to reach 25.
The right-wing liberal party VVD, to which outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte belongs, and which was led in this campaign by Turkish-Dutch Dilan Yeşilgöz with promises of a tough policy on immigration and asylum, suffered a severe electoral coup, losing 10 seats and remaining with 24 deputies.
In fourth place is the New Social Contract (NSC), a center-right party, founded five months ago and led by Pieter Omtzigt, which debuts in Parliament with 20 seats.
In addition to the VVD, the other three parties that form the current government coalition with Rutte, which is the same one that governed the Netherlands between 2017 and 2021, also lost strength at the polls.
The left-liberal D66 lost 15 seats and now has nine, while the Christian Democrat CDA was left with five after losing 10. The fourth coalition partner, the Christian Union, went from five to three.
The BBB farmers’ party, which only had its leader Caroline van der Plas in Parliament, won six more seats, which could guarantee it a place at the negotiating table of the future government.
Local newspapers speak this Thursday (23) of a “political avalanche” and that “the Netherlands has taken a turn to the right”, highlighting the dilemmas now facing the big parties that trailed Wilders at the polls, since the PVV will not be able to govern alone and needs, as is usual in the country, at least two coalition partners.
All attention is focused on the VVD and the NSC, two center-right parties, which could sit at the negotiating table with the PVV, although Yeşilgöz stressed last night that he does not see himself in a cabinet in which Wilders is Prime Minister.
However, Wilders also said on Wednesday (22) that he will not promote anti-Islamic measures such as banning the Koran or closing Islamic schools (two points of his electoral program) and promised to respect the Constitution, in an attempt to pave the way for negotiations, which will officially begin on Friday (24).
The new election was called after the country’s last coalition Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned in July this year after failing to agree on measures to curb immigration.
The government candidate was Dilan Yesilgoz, whose People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), to which Rutte also belongs, was unable to achieve success in this election.
Born in the city of Venlo, Wilders came to politics in 1990 as a member of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), a merger of two liberal and progressive groups that have little to do with the more conservative right. The incumbent Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, for example, belongs to the VVD.
Wilders spent eight years writing speeches for the party, before entering Parliament as an MP. In 2006, he founded the Party for Freedom (PVV), after breaking away from the VVD over disagreements over Turkey’s candidacy for the European Union (EU), and began building his own political movement.
Wilders’ electoral program, presented during the last campaign, includes proposals such as a referendum on the Netherlands’ exit from the European Union (EU), a stricter policy to combat immigration, which includes a total halt in the acceptance of asylum applications and the deportation of immigrants awaiting asylum at the Dutch borders.
Wilders also advocates an anti-Islam policy in the Netherlands, although he has been more moderate when speaking on the topic in recent days.
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