It's only one quarter of the seats, but because there's multiple parties that's enough for a plurality. Still, pathetic that there's even that level of support and it is higher than previously.
Hopefully the other parties have the sense to not support them in government. And indeed, that's what the article suggests:
But the heads of the three other biggest Dutch parties have all said they would not serve in a PVV-led cabinet.
This is so depressing...
I knew it would be bad, but not this bad. Only comfort I can take is in the fact that they'll have to form a coalition with other major parties. Most of them already flat-out denied working together with the PVV (Partij Voor de Vrijheid - Party For Freedom) but we'll see how much of that will remain true.
Hopefully the coalition will break and we'll have new elections in a year or so.
I can't see a coalition of PVV, NSC, BBB and VVD serving the full 4 years. NSC and BBB are completely new, and the last time PVV was in a coalition they let it fall...
They don't need the BBB though. PVV, NSC and VVD should be good for an 81 seat majority.
But yes, I pretty much expect the coalition to fall within a year or two (should they manage to get a coalition to begin with). The question is who will cause the fall and who will be scapegoated. I wouldn't be surprised if they'll be positioning themselves for this inevitability from the start.
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
The PVV, whose manifesto includes calls for bans on mosques, the Qur’an and Islamic headscarves in government buildings, was predicted to win 35 seats in the 150-seat parliament, more than double the number it won in the previous ballot in 2021.
Far-right figures across Europe including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, France’s Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini in Italy and Germany’s AfD rushed to congratulate the PVV leader.
The outcome of the election, set to usher in the Netherlands’ first new prime minister in 13 years after four consecutive Rutte-led coalitions, could lead to “constitutional stalemate”, said Kate Parker of the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Rutte’s fourth and final coalition resigned in July after failing to agree on measures to rein in migration, one of the key issues of the campaign, along with a housing crisis that especially affects Dutch youth, the cost of living, and voter trust in politicians.
Wilders is an outspoken Eurosceptic and has long campaigned for the Dutch government to take back control of the country’s borders to reduce immigration, slash payments into the union’s budget and veto any further expansion of the EU.
Wilders has recently attempted to soften his more hardline anti-Islam language, apparently in hopes of entering a coalition government for the first time, conceding that there were “bigger problems” than bringing down refugee numbers, and that he could put some of his anti-Muslim positions “on ice”.