France's Hollande and would-be successor hail mainstream's lead in Dutch election
Dutch election result: Mark Rutte sees off Geert Wilders challenge as Netherlands rejects far-Right
- Mark Rutte on course for victory
- Geert Wilders has pledged to take the Netherlands out of the EU
- Wilders running on an anti-immigration platform
- Rutte calls on country to 'make a point' to the world
- Dutch election 2017: everything you need to know
- Who won the Dutch election and what does it mean?
Geert Wilders’s promise to bring a populist “revolution” to Europe fell flat on Wednesday night after his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom failed to live up to supporters’ expectations in a closely-watched Dutch general election.
The possibility that the far-Right firebrand could become the largest party in the Dutch parliament had sent tremors through Europe’s political establishment in recent days fearing yet further destabilisation following the UK vote for Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.
In the event Mr Wilders won just 20 seats, according to several exit polls, and was soundly beaten by Mark Rutte, the incumbent centre-Right Dutch prime minister, whose VVD Party was on track to becoming the largest party in the Netherlands 150-seat parliament with 33 seats.
The CDA and centrist Democrats 66 tied for third with 19 each, data provided by the ANP news agency showed.
Even though Mr Rutte's total was 8 seats below 2012, the clear vote in favour of his ruling VVD party was welcomed by leading figures from across the EU’s political establishment which is seeking to reboot the European Union after Brexit.
French President Francois Hollande congratulated Mr Rutte for his election success and his "clear victory against extremism."
"The values of openness, respect for others, and a faith in Europe's future are the only true response to the nationalist impulses and isolationism that are shaking the world," Mr Hollande said in a statement early on Thursday.
France is facing a presidential election starting next month in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who wants to leave the European Union and sharply curb immigration, is expected to make a strong showing.
Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian prime minister, said the “anti-EU right has lost the elections” and urged supporters to work to “revitalise the Union.”
He was echoed by Martin Schulz, a candidate for German chancellor this autumn, who said he was “relieved” at the result. Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, said it had demonstrated that “optimism prevailed”.
At 81 percent, turnout was the highest in 30 years in an election that was a test of whether the Dutch wanted to end decades of liberalism and choose a nationalist, anti-immigrant path.
Mr Wilders was defiant, thanking his supporters as the results came in, and noting that his 19 seats represented a 4-seat gain from 2012 – a marginal success, but less than half the 41 seats Mr Wilders was slated to win at the height of his poll popularity in January 2016.
“PVV-voters, thank you! We have won seats! The first win is in. And Rutte is far from rid of me!!” he wrote on Twitter.
However that improvement was eclipsed by the two main pro-EU parties, D66 and GreenLeft, which gained 7 seats and 12 seats respectively.
In the final days of the campaign, Mr Rutte had warned of “chaos” if Mr Wilders was allowed into government, urging Dutch voters to “make a point” to the world by rejecting the hard-Right agenda of Mr Wilders.
His impassioned plea for tolerance came at the end of a bitter campaign, with Mr Wilders pressing his anti-immigrant agenda – at one point using the phrase “Moroccan scum” – and a ferocious diplomatic row with Turkey that further raised the temperature of the immigration debate.
PM Mark Rutte sees off challenge of Geert Wilders in Dutch election
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, has comfortably seen off a challenge from the anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders to claim victory in parliamentary elections widely seen as a test for resurgent nationalism before key European polls.
With nearly 95% of votes counted and no further significant changes expected, Rutte’s centre-right, liberal VVD was assured of 33 MPs, by far the largest party in the 150-seat Dutch parliament, national news agency ANP said.
Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) looked certain to finish second, but a long way behind on 20 seats, just ahead of the Christian Democrat CDA and liberal-progressive D66 which both ended up in third position on 19 seats.
“Our message to the Netherlands – that we will hold our course, and keep this country safe, stable and prosperous, got through,” Rutte told a cheering crowd of supporters at the VVD’s election night party.
After Britain’s shock Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the US, he added, the eyes of the world had been on the vote: “This was an evening when … the Netherlands said ‘Stop’ to the wrong sort of populism.”
A first-place finish for the PVV would have rocked Europe. In France, the far-right Front National leader, Marine Le Pen, is expected to make the second-round runoff in May’s presidential election, while the Eurosceptic Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is on target to win its first federal parliament seats later in the year.
Relieved European politicians were quick to applaud. A spokesman for European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker hailed “a vote against extremists” while French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault tweeted: “Congratulations to the Netherlands for halting the advance of the far right.”
Wilders, who had led the polls for the better part of two years before fading badly in the weeks before polling day as he has done in past elections, said he would have preferred to have become the largest party.
But he noted the VVD had lost 10 seats while he had gained four, and promised to offer stiff resistance. “We are not a party that has lost,” he said. “We gained seats. That’s a result to be proud of … And Rutte is certainly not rid of me yet.”
The big winners were the pro-European left-wing ecologists of GreenLeft, who leapt from four seats to 14. But the social democratic Labour party (PvdA), Rutte’s outgoing coalition partner, slumped to a historic low of nine seats from 38.
Rutte is now set to begin the often lengthy process of building a new coalition, most likely based around the VVD, CDA and D66 – a combination that falls five MPs short of a 76-seat majority, leaving him seeking a fourth coalition partner.
Wilders, who pledged to “de-Islamise” the Netherlands and take it out of the European Union, was widely seen as unlikely to enter government however he fared since most other parties, including the VVD, had vowed not to enter a coalition with the PVV.
Turnout was high at 77% in an election both Rutte and Wilders cast as a test of whether the Dutch wanted to end decades of openness and centrist politics and opt instead for anti-immigration nationalism.
“The Dutch have woken up in a ‘normal’ country, as prime minister Mark Rutte puts it,” the NRC daily wrote in its editorial “There was no populist revolt. But the paper pointed out that the big lesson was that governing does not pay.
“The outgoing government presented a dream budget this year,” it said. “What should have gone up went up, what should have come down came down. The Netherlands is one of the best-performing countries in the EU. And still the outgoing coalition was punished severely. For voters, apparently, politics is about more than the economy.”
Political commentator Roderick Veelo, however, cautioned against assuming the populist far-right challenge was over. “Rutte is still standing, but so too is social discontent about uncontrolled immigration, failed integration and the power of Brussels,” he said.
“That dissatisfaction is not going away. The broad coalition that will govern this country soon must show responsibility and courage on these subjects and go to work with real solutions. Only when that happens will the populist revolt die a quiet death.”
Rutte was also thought to have benefited from his cool handling of a fierce row with Turkey over the government’s refusal to allow Turkish ministers to address rallies of Dutch Turks before a referendum next month on plans to grant Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, sweeping new powers.
France's Hollande and would-be successor hail mainstream's lead in Dutch election
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande welcomed Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's election victory over anti-Islam, anti-EU leader Geert Wilders, as did the man who hopes to beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen and take Hollande's place in a vote next May.
Hollande, near the end of his five-year term, on Thursday congratulated Rutte on the centre-right premier's unexpectedly sizeable score and lead over Wilders in a Dutch election closely watched by Europe ahead of France's presidential ballot.
"The President warmly congratulates Mark Rutte for his clear victory against extremism," Socialist politician Hollande said in a statement.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron, tipped by most polls to end up in a second-round runoff against Le Pen, who leads France's anti-immigrant and anti-EU National Front party, offered congratulations on social network Twitter.
"The Netherlands is showing us that a breakthrough for the extreme right is not a foregone conclusion and that progressives are gaining momentum," said the 39-year-old presidential contender, who pledges to modernise French politics and transcend traditional left-versus-right divisions.
Rutte's victory may hearten mainstream political leaders in a battle with Le Pen, who wants to ditch the euro and restore France's franc currency.
Opinion polls show Le Pen winning the first round of the election in April, but then losing a decisive second round vote in May to whichever of Macron or conservative candidate Francois Fillon makes it to the May 7 runoff. Polls now show Macron far more likely to get to the runoff than Fillon.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Brian Love; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
