Eurosceptics celebrate remarkable Wilders win in Dutch elections as bloc set for migration clash
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Eurosceptic leaders rejoiced on Thursday as firebrand anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders secured a shock victory in the Dutch elections.
The populist and often extreme Right-winger said he was “ready to govern” after his Freedom Party (PVV) won 37 seats in the ballot. This was hailed as a game-changer ahead of next year’s European elections.
“This is the most beautiful day of my political life,” Mr Wilders, 60, added.
The so-called “monsterzege” – or monster victory – came on the back of a campaign calling for a Nexit referendum, the closure of borders and “zero asylum seekers”, at a time of surging migrant arrivals to Europe and the highest numbers in the Netherlands for 20 years.
It was seen as the latest attempt by European voters to punish mainstream political parties for their failure to address anger over migration, the cost of living and net zero climate ambitions.
The issues are likely to be the main battlegrounds fought on as Europe prepares for a fight between nationalist and traditional pro-Brussels politicians in the forthcoming European parliamentary elections.
Having failed to secure a majority, Mr Wilders must now attempt to construct a Right-wing coalition to form a government.
Despite having topped the polls, he suggested his Freedom Party could enter the government as a junior partner.
“It will happen that the PVV will enter the cabinet,” he said.
Frans Timmermans, the socialist leader and former EU commissioner, dubbed the bloc’s “climate pope” for his work on green issues, took second place, with 25 MPs.
“I suspect we will end up in opposition,” he conceded.
Mr Wilders is a veteran Eurosceptic, standing on his flagship policy to hold a referendum to remove the Netherlands from the EU.
The victory was celebrated by fellow hard-Right European leaders, who were buoyed by another major European government being brought under the control of a like-minded leader.
Unlike the UK, the Netherlands has the euro and a fully integrated land border with the bloc, meaning it is unlikely to ever leave.
“The winds of change are here! Congratulations Geert Wilders on winning the Dutch elections,” Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, who is battling against the EU’s migration policy, said.
“Many people in Western Europe would give half their lives if they could have a country without illegal migrants again,” he added.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-Right Rassemblement National, said: “It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch extinguished that the hope for change remains alive in Europe.”
“A new Europe is possible,” said Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy, who leads a pan-EU alliance of hard-Right parties in the European Parliament.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s Vox, said: “More and more Europeans demand in the streets and at the polls that their nations, their borders and their rights be defended.”
“Everywhere in Europe, we see the same Right-wing blowing. It’s time for change,” said Tom van Grieken of Belgium’s nationalist Vlaams Belang.
The European Commission said it was not worried about a possible Nexit, with a spokesman saying Brussels “continues to count on a strong Dutch role in the EU”.
Mosques, Korans and Islamic schools
As his campaign built steam, Mr Wilders dropped manifesto pledges to ban mosques, the Koran and Islamic schools in the hope of finally entering government after 25 years as a backbench MP.
“I understand very well that parties do not want to be in a government with a party that wants unconstitutional measures. We are not going to talk about mosques, Korans and Islamic schools,” he said.
Dilan Yesilgoz, 46, the leader of the conservative VVD, which has led governments since 2010, said she would not entertain entering a coalition with Mr Wilders until consulting her party members.
“I don’t see Wilders becoming prime minister because I don’t see him being able to form a majority,” she said. “Now it’s his turn to show if he can do that.”
She denied responsibility for his election victory after not ruling out a coalition government in the build-up to the vote.
The VVD said it was prepared to enter into a coalition with Mr Wilders as long as he is not prime minister, with a possible majority found with Peter Omzigt’s New Social Contract, which secured 20 seats.
“The Netherlands will have to be governed, and we are available for that,” Mr Omzigt said.
Caroline van der Plas, the leader of the BBB, the Dutch farmers’ party, said she would like to enter a coalition with Mr Wilders, “provided Geert moves along a bit”.
She said he would have to stick to his promise to be more moderate.
his fellow populist added that Mr Wilders’s manifesto calls for Nexit, which would deny farmers EU agricultural subsidies, and a ban on the Koran were “impossible and unfeasible”.
Still, his victory prompted widespread concern because of his history as an anti-Islam firebrand.
“This feels like my 9/11,” Abdellah Dami, a Moroccan-Dutch journalist and writer, said at a rally of Denk supporters - the Left-leaning party representing Dutch citizens with immigrant origins.
“One million Dutch Muslims are being deported and there is a lot of fear about that,” Stephan van Baarle, the Denk leader, said after winning three seats in parliament.
“A racist party has won the Dutch elections,” said Amnesty.
“We find it unacceptable that the Netherlands is in danger of being governed by a party that excludes people,” said the Dutch Refugee Foundation.
