9:00 p.m.
The Netherlands’ main exit poll suggests that Prime Minister Mark Rutte has won the Dutch elections, easily beating anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders.
For the two-time prime minister Rutte, the poll indicated that an economic recovery and his hard-line handling of a diplomatic dispute with Turkey over the past week has won him support.
The Ipsos polling company gave Rutte’s party 31 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, compared to 19 seats for 3 other parties, including that of Wilders. Weeks or months of coalition talks are expected to follow.
The exit poll was conducted at 43 of the 9,300 polling stations across the country Wednesday. It had a margin of error of two percentage points.
Analysis here at The Guardian. Sounds as if a stable coalition is going to be difficult to achieve.
Waiting to read what oui has to say.
[My earlier comment of today …]
Brexit – Trump – Wilders – will the Dutch stem the tide of populism today? I trust they will … the voting is under way and I have a good feeling Geert Wilders will not gain sufficient foothold to be a key player in the coalition forming starting tomorrow.
○ GOP Nominee Donald Trump and His EU Bed Partners
○ Brexit ‘a Warning’ for Hillary Clinton, Says Council on Foreign Relations President by Oui @BooMan on June 25, 2016
So glad to be reading the news tonight after a long day of non-stop work.
I have friends that have either lived in Amsterdam in the past or who presently work there for part of the year. It’s also a place I visit from time to time. Good to know that decency has won the day in your home country. May others in Europe experience similar good fortune. We are a long ways from being out of the woods, but there is reason for cautious optimism.
Unbelievable but true! Dutch defeat the rise of extreme right-wing populism of the PVV and Geert Wilders. The PVV had polled a year ago as by far the largest party, it has to settle for a battle for 2nd-3rd-4th spot with the Christian Democrats (CDA) and even the Liberals of Pechtold (D66). The campaign was lively with serious discussion of the issues and Wilders thought he could squeeze through without participating in all television debates.
PM Mark Rutte’s Conservative Liberal party (VVD) has outmaneuvered Geert Wilders and leads the exit polls with an equivalent of 31 seats, down from 38 in previous election. The Labour party is completely devastated, down to 10 seats at the most. Dutch parliament has 150 seats, thus the forming of a coalition will be a long process.
Wonderful spring weather and a high turnout, democracy is alive in Holland! Let the tulips bloom, after Brexit and Trump there is no continuation of populism in the Netherlands. Will the international media cover the end of this story, or will leave asap to offer noteworthy fake news elsewhere across the globe??
○ Election 2017: Turnout may reach 80%, new ballot papers printed
Thanks and congratulations for dodging the Wilders bullet.
Expected you to report on this and draw from a number of sources and provide descriptions, explanations, and context.
Instead we’re left with another “read a headline,” don’t know anything about the subject, but hey, it has to be stupendous news “diary.”
Why this angers me is that I appreciate diaries that add to my knowledge/understanding, particularly, as in this case, when I know close to zilch about subject. Wilders wasn’t positioned or poised to take over the Dutch government; so, the fact that he didn’t or didn’t even match his polling numbers isn’t the most important news. What is more noteworthy is that the lead party in the current ruling coalition lost 22.5% of its seats and its strong junior partner lost 74% of its seats.
Wilders gained 58%. And the Green party quadrupled its seats. The other large winner was D66 and now has the same number of seats as Wilders and CDA, but what does it mean?
I don’t know if you are directing these comments to me or to oui, but please note that in another thread recently, I replied to your flame remarks by suggesting that we no longer comment on each other’s writing.
oui is allowed to be in a celebratory mood.
From the liveblogging of the election results at The Guardian:
This could well be the party that decides if Rutte can form a majority grand coalition government. Labor appears to be toast. The pattern of old center-left parties collapsing seems to be continuing.
There is an interesting map that shows the difference between 2012 and 2017.
The solid red (Socialist) northern part of the country is now an assortment of colors (VVD/D66/SP/PVV/Green if I’m reading the colors correctly). Although Greens did well, they fell slightly short of most recent expectations (projected 14 vs expected 16-18). I’m most interested in seeing the distribution of who former SP voters voted for.
A few comments about an election I wasn’t following in a country I’ve never visited:
. 28 parties competing is a rather large number and kind of dilutes (somewhat) the drawing of too many black and white conclusions
. Rutte may have benefitted late, soaking up some anti-immigrant sentiment, by taking stern actions and looking tough against the Turkish/Erdogan (Muslim) govt diplomatic officials in the Netherlands, also in his well-pubbed comment about immigrants needing to respect Dutch ways or “get out”.
. Wilders seems to have let enthusiasm and expectations get a bit out of control; would have done better if he’d publicly emphasized he just hoped his party could gain some seats, finishing first probably not in the cards. He might just be too aggressive a personality for the fairly mild-mannered Dutch.
. Turnout of 80%+ is very impressive and puts the US electorate to shame.
. Interesting that there is a Muslim party — the Denk, supposedly moderate (?) — which earned 4 seats in the parliament. Something to watch. 6% of Dutch are Muslim currently, but I assume Dutch Muslims also have high birthrates.
. Silly me: when I first saw this
I thought, wow, isn’t it kinda cool that the Dutch have parties representing rock/blues bands. Eric Burden and the guys must be so proud!
Alas, no. I’m all in favor of animals, and not killing them, getting our scientists to move a little faster in the lab in developing tasty, animal-derived foods for our human nourishment. But an entire party built around this one issue, and getting seats in parliament … kinda ridiculous.
Note on the Denk: it’s described differently in various media outlets I’ve seen. One place prominently noted the Muslim angle, other outlets downplay that description and say it’s more a party to in part counter Wilders — pro-immigrant, anti-Islamaphobia, a party for Dutch people of color.
One prominent member, a black woman whose family is from Suriname, had been expected to run for a seat in the party, but left recently, possibly because she had proposed the Denk offer a gay rights plank in their platform. Perhaps not as moderate/liberal a party as some of its positions suggest.
The Denk also recently proposed in Parliament a law on what it deemed Islamophobic hate speech, designed to strictly prohibit, among other things, any speech considered derogatory of Islam, or that’s how I understand it. It would create a state registry to track instances of such speech.
Very bad state censorship idea as there are many aspects of Islam, as currently practiced, which are easily worthy of public condemnation and need to be called out. The proposed law seems an attempt– guised as liberal-sounding anti-Islamaphobia do-good legislation — at making Islam immune from criticism, and is definitely counter to western traditions of robust free speech even if some groups are offended.
What you’re referring to is a BLASPHEMY law, something that has no place in a liberal democracy. Yes, I know the UK still has blasphemy laws, but they are not enforced.
And blasphemy laws “protecting” Islam are in fact common in Muslim-majority countries and have been used to silence non-Muslim minorities. Pakistan and Indonesia are two examples that come to mind.