Wilders' Dutch nationalist party claims parliament chair for first time

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch far right leader Geert Wilders on Thursday claimed another prize after his resounding victory in the Nov. 22 national election, as Martin Bosma of his anti-Muslim Freedom Party (PVV) was elected chair of the Lower House of parliament.

Bosma has been member of parliament for Wilders' party since 2006 and is the first from the nationalist party to be elected chairman of parliament.

His narrow win over a candidate from the GreenLeft/Labour alliance came despite fierce criticism from several parties, who said he had always sided with Wilders when he called the Lower House a "fake parliament" and said Dutch judges were "totally corrupt".

Bosma himself has repeatedly said he was worried about what he saw as deliberate plans by leftist elites to replace the original Dutch population with Muslim immigrants.

In a lengthy debate on Thursday, Bosma (59) promised to be a neutral chair, in line with Dutch tradition.

Wilders' PVV was the clear winner of the election, but with about a quarter of the total vote he needs to find partners to build a workable governing coalition.

So far, he has not succeeded in doing so, as two of his key prospective partners have expressed serious doubts about working with him.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)