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Just as a heads-up for American readers:
That doesn't mean the far-right party lost. They don't go home with nothing. They go to the European Parliament with 7 seats, the fact that the Labour-Green alliance has 1 more doesn't change anything.
Good info! But the take away is also that it wasn't a landslide victory for the far-right, which a lot of people thought it might be.
Polls predicted both to be at around 8 seats. Exit polls have PVV at 7, Labour-Greens at 8, with a margin of error of 1. So pretty much what was expected.
Whether one or the other is larger is mostly irrelevant, as that only pertains to the Dutch share of seats in the European Parliament - there are way more seats to be assigned, and there will not be an absolute majority for anyone anyway.
It's still pretty scary though. The far right wasn't usually this close to the top. It's like whole political center has been obliterated. Which, to be fair, is something they kinda caused themselves. People have lost trust in the government and are more and more just putting their faith in populists. I'm happy we're at least somewhat matching that with a progressive/left/green vote, but still, scary times.
That's a relief! Hopefully the far-right wave has bottomed out by the next election.
The problem is that the populist, nationalist right tends to be good in opposition, because they can shout simplistic slogans and don't have to actually deliver anything.
According to national polls, the PVV would have now ca. 48 out a total of 150 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives; so a 32%.
In this exit poll, PVV won 7 out of a total of 31 European Parliament seats, or 22,5%.
On the other hand PVV went from 1 to 7 seats in the EP. A huge far-right surge was/ is expected for the EP election. But in the Netherlands, it didn't turn out as high as was predicted.
I suspect that the people who vote nationalistic populists into power are less interested in European elections.
And possibly these voters also dislike the amount of water the PVV has already had to add to their wine to get a coalition going on national level. Water such as guarantees that the constitution is not blatently broken.
How is that a relief? They still gained 7 seats.
Well, it could have been worse (and in the general election just a few months back it actually was a lot worse, so there's that). On top of that, The Putin-loving white supremacist party of Thierry Baudet lost all their 4 seats.
So yeah, I'm not dancing on the table with this result, but am kinda relieved
Don't hope, vote. Even though polls show something different.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Geert Wilders’ far-right party looks set to be narrowly beaten into second place in the contest for Dutch seats in the European Parliament, according to an exit poll published on Thursday.
That put it a nose ahead of Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) which, according to the exit poll, should pick up seven seats.
The center-right party of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte (VVD) is expected to win four seats.
It seems to confirm a far-right surge, impacting areas such as asylum and migration as well as climate policy.
It also entrenches an upward streak for Wilders, who upset the Dutch political landscape by coming in first in a national election last November, and marks a stark contrast with the last European election in 2019 when he failed to secure even a single seat.
Wilders’ smaller coalition allies, the right-wing populist Farmer Citizen Movement (BBB), and centrist New Social Contract (NSC), both newcomers to the European arena, also appear to have both managed to clinch seats, with 2 and 1 respectively.
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