The first European country to hold elections in this new year marked by the coronavirus, the Netherlands organized the three-day ballot so that people at risk can vote in complete safety. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD party remains the leading party in the country after the general elections held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Dutch Liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte easily beat his far-right rival Geert Wilders in the legislative elections on Wednesday, much to the relief of Europe, hailed a victory against what he calls “bad populism”. The participation rate would be 81% according to preliminary estimates. A record number of 37 parties contested for the 150 seats in the Second Chamber.
The ruling party is due to obtain two more seats than in 2017. The left-wing liberals of D66, also members of the governing coalition, won a fine victory with 27 seats (+8) and thus become the country’s second party. The pro-EU, center-left D-66, led by former UN diplomat Sigrid Kaag, with 27 seats, dethrones the PVV (far right), of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders so far the largest opposition party that finds itself at the bottom of the podium. To do this, he will have collected 17 seats, losing 3 folding seats in the process. The main parties have already ruled out forming a possible coalition with the PVV.
We know the feelings of hatred that the leader of the far-right party has for the Moroccan community in the Netherlands. He often hammered that “Millions of Dutch want fewer Moroccans” and proposed to close all mosques in the Netherlands, as well as ban the Koran. Recently on Twitter he demanded the ” cleaning ” streets of the country, dominated, according to him, by “Criminal rats” that they should be deprived of their nationality before “Deport to Morocco, all”. Just that ! while waiting for the three lost seats on the way, he will know where to find them the next time.
In short, in fourth position we find the CDA (Christian Democrats) of Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra, with 14 seats, then the PvdA (social democrats) with its 9 seats; and the environmentalists of Groenlinks and the radical left of the SP with 8 seats each. The Christian Democratic CDA, also in power, obtains 14 seats (-5). These election nights were difficult for the left opposition parties. The Socialist Party SP and GroenLinks go from 14 to 8 seats, according to this poll.
The social-democratic PvdA remains on a status quo with a historically low score of 9 seats. Moreover, Thierry Baudet’s right-wing populist Forum for Democracy party is heading for a gain compared to four years ago, going from 2 to 7 seats. Finally, four new parties appear to be on their way to the House of Representatives. Thus, the pro-European party Volt obtains 4 seats, JA21 (right) 3, the anti-racism party Bij1 of Sylvana Simons 1, just like the BoerBurgerBeweging (1).
This would bring the total number of parties in the Lower House of Parliament to 17, a new record. The Lower House of Parliament has a total of 150 seats. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his ruling People’s Party for Freedom (VVD) started negotiations on a new ruling coalition government yesterday.
The results indicated that Rutte will need to form a coalition with two other parties to secure a 76-seat majority in parliament and they are the perfect fit. Although the anti-Islam MP insisted that his party be invited to the negotiating table when forming a government coalition after the poll, Rutte said he would not form a coalition with the PVV of Geert wilders “Because of what he said about Islam and the Koran”, but with the D-66, current member of the coalition, and the Christian Democrats (CDA), of the Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra, in fourth position and which gained 14 seats, five less than in 2017. Rutte has said he would like to complete the coalition process as soon as possible.
