Dutch PM cheers EU leaders by seeing off far-right’s Wilders

Amsterdam, March 16 

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Dutch centre-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte fought off the challenge of anti-Islam and anti-EU rival Geert Wilders to score an election victory that was hailed across Europe on Thursday by governments facing a rising wave of nationalism.

The euro gained as the results of Wednesday’s vote showed a clear win for Rutte, albeit with fewer seats than in the last parliament.

He declared it an “evening in which the Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, said ‘stop’ to the wrong kind of populism.”

The result was a disappointment for Wilders, who had led in opinion polls until late in the campaign and had hoped to pull off an anti-establishment triumph in the first of three key  elections in the European Union this year.

A win for him would have been seen as a boost for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, running second in opinion polls before a presidential election in April and May, and for populist parties elsewhere that want to curb immigration and weaken or break up the EU.

The sense of relief among European leaders was palpable. “The Netherlands are our partners, friends, neighbours. Therefore I was very happy that a high turnout led to a very pro-European result, a clear signal,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will run for re-election in September.

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, expected to face Le Pen in a two-way run-off on May 7, said: “The Netherlands is showing us that a breakthrough for the extreme right is not a foregone conclusion and that progressives are gaining momentum.”

The risk premium demanded by investors to hold French government bonds rather than safe-haven German bunds sank in early trade to its lowest level in two weeks, although the move proved temporary.

At 80 per cent, turnout was the highest in a decade in an election that was a test of whether the Dutch wanted to end decades of liberalism and choose a nationalist, anti-immigrant path by voting for Wilders and his promise to “de-Islamicise” the Netherlands and quit the EU.

With 97 per cent of votes counted, Rutte’s VVD Party had won 33 of parliament’s 150 seats, down from 41 at the last vote in 2012. Wilders was second with 20, and the CDA and centrist Democrats 66 tied for third with 19 each, data provided by the ANP news agency showed.

Rutte is now virtually guaranteed a third term, leading a government that can be expected to continue tightening immigration policy in the Netherlands, already among the strictest in the EU.

A number of parties including Rutte’s and the third-placed Christian Democrats (CDA), have already adopted most of Wilders’ anti-immigration platform, if not his fiery anti-Islam rhetoric.

With his strong second-place finish, Wilders warned Rutte that he had not seen the last of his Party for Freedom. He added that he wanted to participate in coalition talks, even though mainstream parties have ruled out working with him.

Rutte got a last-minute boost from a diplomatic row with Turkey, which allowed him to take a tough line on a majority Muslim country during an election campaign in which immigration and integration have been key issues. Turkey has been locked in a deepening row with the Netherlands after the Dutch barred Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of overseas Turks. — Reuters

Focus next on Le Pen

• Following last year's shock Brexit referendum and Donald Trump's victory in the US, the Dutch vote was being closely scrutinised as a gauge of the rise of populism on the continent ahead of crucial elections in France and Germany
• Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France, where the far-right Marine Le Pen is currently seen winning the first round of the presidential election in April, congratulated Rutte for “stopping the rise of the far-right”
• Mabel Berezin, a professor of sociology, said defeat for Wilders should not be considered a sign that European populism is waning. “The real bellwether election will be Marine Le Pen's quest for the French presidency that is where the populist action is and that is what we should be focusing upon,” she said