Dutch vote in knife-edge snap elections seen as litmus test for far right

In a high-stakes snap election in the Netherlands, which will test the far-right’s leadership, which is expanding across Europe, will be challenged.

On Wednesday, polls indicated that far-right Freedom Party (PVV) candidate Geert Wilders and his far-right opposition party are on track to take the majority of House of Representatives seats. The gap is being filled by three more moderate parties, but the majority of the electorate is still undecided.

Recommended Stories

list of 2 itemsend of list

Parties must bargain over the composition of the next coalition government once the results are known, in a proportional representation system that requires no party to occupy the 76 seats needed to run the government alone.

The key question is whether other parties will support Wilders, who was referred to as the “Dutch Trump” and who sparked the election by removing the PVV from a contentious four-way coalition and putting an end to the previous government’s immigration repression.

All major political parties have rejected a partnership with him because they believe he is an untrustworthy coalition partner because of his views. The party’s leader, according to what sources, is most likely to become prime minister.

Step Vaessen, a journalist from The Hague, claimed that the election campaign had been “dominated by calls to limit immigration” and that there had also been “some violent protests against refugee centers.”

Wilders claimed that people were “fed up with mass immigration, the change of culture, and the influx of people who really do not not culturally belong here” in a pre-election interview with the news agency AFP.

He said, “Our nation’s future is in danger.”

Voters can “choose again tomorrow to listen to your grumpy hatred for another 20 years or choose with positive energy to simply get to work and tackle this problem and solve it,” according to Rob Jetten, the leader of the centre-left D66 party, which wants to restrain migration while also accommodating asylum seekers.

In the final debate leading up to the elections, former European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans said he was “looking forward to the day – and that day is tomorrow” that we can end the Wilders era.

A significant campaign issue has been the housing crisis, which is particularly concerning for young people in the densely populated nation, in addition to immigration.

The House of Representatives candidate registration process includes 1,166 registered parties.

Because it lists all the parties and candidates, it means a large ballot paper.