Thank you people of the Netherlands.
One or two disappointed Brexiter/Trumpers tonight.
Dutch PM Rutte 'easily beats' Geert Wilders in Netherlands election, exit poll suggests | The Independent
One or two disappointed Brexiter/Trumpers tonight.
Dutch PM Rutte 'easily beats' Geert Wilders in Netherlands election, exit poll suggests | The Independent
The main exit poll in the Netherlands suggests that Prime Minister Mark Rutte has won the Dutch elections, easily beating anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders.
For the two-time prime minister Mr Rutte, the poll indicated that an economic recovery and his hard-line handling of a diplomatic dispute with Turkey over the past week has won him support.
The Ipsos polling company gave Mr Rutte's party 31 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, compared to 19 seats for 3 other parties, including that of Mr Wilders. A second exit poll also showed the Prime Minister's party had the largest share.
For Mr Wilders, the poll was a test whether his fiery nationalist rhetoric caught the imagination of the population. Even if he increased his total in the 150-seat legislature from 15 to 19, it is was a disappointment since he was seeking to become the biggest party.
Weeks or months of coalition talks are expected to follow.
The exit poll was conducted at 43 of the 9,300 polling stations across the country on Wednesday. It had a margin of error of two percentage points.
With France and Germany facing elections in the months ahead, Mr Rutte hoped to slow the momentum of what he called the “wrong sort of populism” after last's year British vote to leave the European Union and the election of US President Donald Trump.
“This is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism,” Mr Rutte said after voting.
Mr Wilders had insisted that whatever the result of Wednesday's election, the kind of populist politics he and others in Europe represent are not going away.
“The genie will not go back into the bottle. People feel misrepresented,” he said, predicting the feeling would surface in the French and Germany elections. But the first indications were still bad.
The Dutch Labor Party of eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem has been punished by voters in parliamentary elections, plunging from 38 seats at the last election to just nine.
The left-leaning party appeared to be hammered by its supporters for its role over the last four years in pushing through a tough austerity package as junior member in a two-party Cabinet with the right-wing VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Labor Party junior Cabinet minister Sharon Dijksma called the defeat "an enormous slap for us all and I think that all social democrats this evening have a scratch on their soul."
For the two-time prime minister Mr Rutte, the poll indicated that an economic recovery and his hard-line handling of a diplomatic dispute with Turkey over the past week has won him support.
The Ipsos polling company gave Mr Rutte's party 31 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, compared to 19 seats for 3 other parties, including that of Mr Wilders. A second exit poll also showed the Prime Minister's party had the largest share.
For Mr Wilders, the poll was a test whether his fiery nationalist rhetoric caught the imagination of the population. Even if he increased his total in the 150-seat legislature from 15 to 19, it is was a disappointment since he was seeking to become the biggest party.
Weeks or months of coalition talks are expected to follow.
The exit poll was conducted at 43 of the 9,300 polling stations across the country on Wednesday. It had a margin of error of two percentage points.
With France and Germany facing elections in the months ahead, Mr Rutte hoped to slow the momentum of what he called the “wrong sort of populism” after last's year British vote to leave the European Union and the election of US President Donald Trump.
“This is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism,” Mr Rutte said after voting.
Mr Wilders had insisted that whatever the result of Wednesday's election, the kind of populist politics he and others in Europe represent are not going away.
“The genie will not go back into the bottle. People feel misrepresented,” he said, predicting the feeling would surface in the French and Germany elections. But the first indications were still bad.
The Dutch Labor Party of eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem has been punished by voters in parliamentary elections, plunging from 38 seats at the last election to just nine.
The left-leaning party appeared to be hammered by its supporters for its role over the last four years in pushing through a tough austerity package as junior member in a two-party Cabinet with the right-wing VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Labor Party junior Cabinet minister Sharon Dijksma called the defeat "an enormous slap for us all and I think that all social democrats this evening have a scratch on their soul."
Comment