Dutch anti-EU firebrand Geert Wilders wins Dutch election: Exit poll
Far-right populist Geert Wilders has won the most votes Wednesday in the Dutch election with a landslide margin, according to an exit poll, putting him in line to lead talks to form a new ruling coalition and possibly become the country’s Prime Minister.
In a major shock, the exit poll published by the national broadcaster NOS said Wilders’ Party for Freedom won 35 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, more than twice the 17 he won at the last election.
If confirmed when votes are counted, a Wilders victory would send a seismic shock through European politics.
His election program calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at the Dutch borders.
It also advocates the “de-Islamisation” of the Netherlands.
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But the lawmaker, who has in the past been labelled a Dutch version of Donald Trump, first would have to form a coalition government before he can take the reins of power.
That will be tough as mainstream parties are reluctant to join forces with him and his Party for Freedom.
The exit poll was published as voting ended in the general election.
It can have a margin of error of up to three seats, but generally is accurate within one or two seats, Ipsos said.
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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.
Rutte was replaced by Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, a former refugee from Turkey who could have become the country’s first female leader had her party won the most votes.
Instead, it was forecast to lose 11 seats to end up with 23.
The election had been called a neck-and-neck race, but in the end Wilders handily beat all opponents.
The result is the latest in a series of elections that is altering the European political landscape.
From Slovakia and Spain, to Germany and Poland, populist and hard-right parties triumphed in some EU member nations and faltered in others.
Mr Wilders is a highly controversial figure in his home country, and has been the subject of numerous death threats.
In 2009 he was banned from entering the United Kingdom, with a Home Office statement saying: “The Government opposes extremism in all its forms … and that was the driving force behind tighter rules on exclusions for unacceptable behaviour that the Home Secretary announced in October last year.”
The ban was subsequently overturned after an appeal to the Britain’s Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.
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