this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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The anti-Islam, euroskeptic radical Geert Wilders is projected to be the shock winner of the Dutch election.

In a dramatic result that will stun European politics, his Freedom Party (PVV) is set to win around 35 of the 150 seats in parliament — more than double the number it secured in the 2021 election, according to exit polls.

Frans Timmermans’ Labour-Green alliance is forecast to take second place, winning 25 seats — a big jump from its current 17. Dilan Yeşilgöz, outgoing premier Mark Rutte’s successor as head of the center-right VVD, suffered heavy losses and is on course to take 24 seats, 10 fewer than before, according to the updated exit poll by Ipsos for national broadcaster NOS.

A win for Wilders will put the Netherlands on track — potentially — for a dramatic shift in direction, after Rutte’s four consecutive centrist governments. The question now, though, is whether any other parties are willing to join Wilders to form a coalition. Despite emerging as the largest party, he will lack an overall majority in parliament.

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[–] FlyingSquid 178 points 7 months ago (36 children)

What the fuck is happening to the world?

[–] Lauchs 144 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Far right extremists claim easy solutions to complex problems. With housing etc pricea going through the roof it's easy to demonize foreigners etc.

Look what happened in Germany with hyper inflation.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

This is the first generation with worse prospects than the previous one. Wealth inequality is growing, and robber barons are back. Climate change is making any prospects even worse.

Combine that with a communication revolution (social media, to be exact) which allows anyone to pretty much target anyone else with any message they feel like, means disinformation pushing narratives is everywhere. And not to forget, there people in charge of these platforms are among the aforementioned robber barons.

It's easy to offer simple solutions to these problems and push disinformation to people who don't have the knowledge, time or energy to debunk everything and think deeply about things, since they're busy slaving away to put food on their tables, struggling to build a future, and looking for solutions. And simple answers give people a sense of control or explanation over their difficult situation.

It's why I have completely removed myself from every social media platform there is, except this one and I'm only on here intermittently.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

True, but the generation that tends to vote far right is the boomer generation - it's the generation that failed to pass on rising prosperity and gave us the climate crisis.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

If you look at elections in europe, it's pretty consistently the 35-45 year old demographic that votes right the most. Every age group votes right and it's not like it's only boomers, with the exception of young voters <30 (and women) which do vote significantly more left

E. G. Netherlands https://www.statista.com/chart/8178/pvv-largest-party-but-not-among-youth/

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[–] Ab_intra 49 points 7 months ago

Good question. But honestly you just got to look at history for the answer. Far-right extremism often do better when it's hard times like we have right now.

[–] superduperenigma 22 points 7 months ago

We are unfortunately in one of those moments in history where far right authoritarianism is troublingly in vogue.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (3 children)

The right has a cohesive strategy for getting and keeping an animated base, while the libs are focusing on maintaining a status quo that people hate and are creating voter apathy.

[–] Ab_intra 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Just to be clear liberal doesn't really make that much sense in Europe as it dose in the US. Liberals are mostly on the right side of politics while in the US it's on the left. So if you where to talk with European people then they would talk about the left or the right. In my country for instance the only party that is truly liberal is all the way to the right. The left is socialists mostly and while the US have some socialists the democrats in the US is much more to the right than most Europe "left" would be.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Right, you do have some politicians in the US like Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Occasio-Cortes who would be considered Social Democrats in Europe. But yeah, US politics are really opaque due to the two-party system. There are a lot of politicians in the Democratic party who would be considered center-right market liberals in Europe.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Capitalism makes living harder, populist fascism fools voters, cycle repeats

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It's going fascist.

[–] takeda 12 points 7 months ago

Everyone thinks that Russia became hostile with war in Ukraine. They were already fighting war with the West for years and it is bringing fruits. It is the war of disinformation and unlike the traditional hot war, they are very good at it and it is now bringing fruits.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Other parties haven't taken any called for measures when it comes to immigration, now far-right is reaping the benefits.

It's pretty shit but sorta expected if you just stubbornly avoid addressing the issues people have.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Social media, mostly.

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The slide towards far-right fascism continues...

[–] Darkblue 53 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Don't worry, the headline is too sensational. (Which is a pet peeve of mine anyway: headlines should be objective. I can make up my own mind please)

He didn't win a majority. He won't form a goverment. If he does, he will be powerless in the coalition. If he does get to make laws, they won't pass the senate (called "1ste kamer" in NL). And if he does, the government will fall anyway (which is a Dutch tradition anyway).

So a lot of 'outs' :)

No worries!

[–] qevlarr 20 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Only your last one seems valid. Dutch coalitions aren't very stable. The only stable factor of the last 12 years has recently left politics.

The question is indeed who is willing to form a coalition government. The most likely option is PVV (far right), VVD (neoliberal), and NSC (Christian democrats), of the latter can convince their voters they can accept the far right.

[–] Darkblue 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not very stable indeed. Since 'Kok' (2002!), NL has had 1 cabinet come to full term (Rutte II I believe). In 21 years 8 goverments. 1 full term of 4 years, so 7 in 17 years. Elections every 2,5 years on average :/

But hey, at least NL is not Belgium :D

[–] Vrijgezelopkamers 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 90 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Geert Wilder wins Dutch election

35 of the 150 seats in parliament

Let's please stop using FPTP language to describe very non-FPTP systems and outcomes.

[–] fne8w2ah 13 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Also the Dutch political system relies very heavily on coalitions and the "polder model" since no party can ever win a majority of seats in their House of Representatives.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Agreed “win” is too simplistic. Still good shot at forming government though. I’m not familiar with the Dutch system, but, even in systems with proportional representation, the plurality winner usually gets first shot at forming government, and by convention usually does form government. They need 76 seats to govern and are more than halfway there with 37.

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[–] alvvayson 63 points 7 months ago (3 children)

He only got 25% of the vote and it's a consolidation of other right wing votes, so there is no right wing majority.

So it's not much different than earlier elections, but now it's concentrated in his party, making him the largest.

He will not be able to form a government without making concessions. And making concessions will lose him voters.

So yeah, interesting times, but I am not worried.

[–] deranger 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The headline seems much more sensational than the numbers lead me to believe.

[–] alvvayson 34 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

In most countries "winning" the election implies having a majority.

In coalition countries like ours, it only means becoming the biggest party.

Hence why the headline might lead people to a wrong conclusion.

Practically speaking, it's more important which potential coalition has a majority. And the parties on the right don't have a clear majority, nor do the left parties.

So it will either be a center-right or center-left coalition.

Center-right will be attempted first, since we customarily let the largest party initiate, but it will be quite difficult since we have two chambers and different parties on the right are big in different chambers.

If he fails, center-left has a clear majority in both chambers with the same parties.

Edit: need to correct a mistake. Center-left also doesn't have a clear majority in both chambers. Two of the big parties in this election have very few seats in the other chamber.

But not a problem, we often have coalitions that don't have a majority in the Senate. Our House (this election) is more decisive and the Senate more facilitating.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I guess netherlands was like, "you know, things have been going too well here"

[–] [email protected] 62 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Things have been going shit here actually, and blaming minorities for a country's problems is still a surefire way to win votes. As a dutch person I'm sad, embarrassed, and scared.

[–] Darkblue 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

"Going to shit", really?

NL is one of the best countries in the world. Yes we have some challenges, e.g. stikstof or crappy goverment (e.g.toeslagenaffaire), but common, don't be soo fatalistic.

And yes, live is getting very expensive. Which is the result of the late-game capitalistic piramid scheme we live in. That sucks, sure. But that is not solvable any time soon. Especially not by NL :D

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)
  • the government doesn't take climate change seriously
  • it is basically impossible for a large group of people (including me) to ever buy a home
  • any sort of nature here is dead and over half the country doesn't seem to care
  • inequality has been growing for decades
  • the country is incredibly polarized
  • after over a decade of neo liberal VVD policy, the majority of people apparently yearn for even more right wing policy
  • Ajax are 12th in the eredivisie

Or course I'm being a bit dramatic but considering how things were I do think the Netherlands is going to shit a little bit. Of course it's a better place to live than many other places, but in my opinion it's definitely getting worse.

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[–] TheIvoryTower 34 points 7 months ago (15 children)

People need to understand that in a democracy, winning the plurality of the votes is not the same as winning the election. If no-one will work with him, he will not be in government.

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[–] Resol 33 points 7 months ago (8 children)

If you're gonna ban Islam, at least ban every other religion at the same time so you don't look like a racist.

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[–] TwoGems 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

Not elect fascists worldwide (challenge impossible )

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (7 children)

Wilders wants to ban mosques

That's cool, as long as we ban churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and temples at the same time.

I really didnt know this guy was still around, he hasn't been making the world headlines so much in recent years.

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[–] aesthelete 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why do they all have weird fucking hair?

[–] ook_the_librarian 9 points 7 months ago

At this point, it's not even weird. I'm just glad they aren't tarnishing any look I would miss. I mean, in an alternate universe, I could see myself rocking a Chaplin moustache. But they can have the thinning, wiry, bizarrely-styled blond look all to themselves.

[–] frazw 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Politics of me" beats "politics of we" once again.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago

More like "politics of being to dumb to see further than the tip of if my own nose".

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Aww....the rest of the world is going through their own Trump phase now.

[–] Agent641 11 points 7 months ago

Shit's contagious, like covid

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[–] Fades 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

the world is falling to fascism. Fuck this goddamn planet just smite us already jesus fucking christ

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[–] FishFace 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)
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