Dutch election polls LIVE: Updates as Geert Wilders takes on Mark Rutte in Netherlands

Express ^ | LIVE | Alice Foster

[Dave346]

Mr Wilders, the leader of the anti-Islamist Party for Freedom (PVV), is taking on Mr Rutte, from the Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), in the knife-edge election race.

The blonde populist has already cast his vote in the election after a fiery election campaign in which he pledged to shut the country's borders, ban the Koran and close mosques.

11am GMT update: Many PVV voters are backing Mr Wilders in order to rock the political establishment and voice their anger over sky-high immigration.

"I am voting for Wilders. I hope he can make a change to make the Netherlands better," said Wendy de Graaf, who was dropping off her kids at school in The Hague.

"I don't agree with everything he says...but I feel that immigration is a problem."

9.30am GMT update: Mr Wilders today denied claims that he had built his inflammatory election campaign on "bigotry and hate".

"Those are all lies. We have, I believe, the biggest support by the common Dutch people," he told Sky News this morning.

"The common Dutch people who are interested in getting their country back and returning our national sovereignty are hopefully voting today in huge amounts."

8.14am GMT update: Geert Wilders has cast his vote in the general election, surrounded by his security personnel, the media and photographers.

Ahead of voting this morning, Mr Wilders said: “I feel very optimistic. We want to take out country back.”

His emotive slogan is similar to the Brexit campaigners' rallying call for Britain to take back control from the EU during the referendum campaign.

After Mr Wilders cast his vote, he took an anti-migrant stand and said: “Muslims are free to leave the Netherlands whenever they want.”

[Dave346]

Polls close at 4pm ET. First exit polls expected at that time.

[LS]

Last polls had Rutte leading, but we know all about polls.

[Grimmy]

I’ve been trying to follow this as it develops but I really don’t understand the parliamentary system much at all.

The way I understand the process is that it’s not actually an election for who’s going to lead the gov, but which party is going to gain or loose seats. And the parties then have to form alliances or coalitions or whatever if one party isn’t absolute majority of seats. Then the alliance or collation or whatever with the most seats picks their guy to be leader.

Am I close on how it works or way off?

[BigEdLB]

GO GEERT GO!

[pgkdan]

And the parties then have to form alliances or coalitions or whatever if one party isn’t absolute majority of seats

Yes, you are correct. No party is expected to gain a clear majority so whoever wins will need to form a coalition government and all the other parties have pledged to NOT form a coalition with Wilders party.

[goodnesswins]

For later

[bramps]

Thanks for the post. Go Geert! Keep shining the light on the evil known as Islam.

[RoosterRedux]

Go Geert.

[LS]

You are correct. Last two polls had Wilders’ party losing about 3 seats vs. what was expected a few days earlier for him to gain. But who knows since it’s polls?

[metmom]

Last polls had Rutte leading, but we know all about polls.

So was Hillary.

Prayers up for Geert to win.

[Chickensoup]

thanks for putting this up!

[Ohioan]

Without getting into the merits, I think that Wilders has made a major tactical error in the Islamic emphasis. Simply touting the high achievement of his people, and the overreaching meddling of a bureaucracy in Brussels, that obviously does not respect Dutch culture while pushing so-called "Refugees," would have garnered almost all of the same voters as the Islamic emphasis, while picking up those Dutch who would be defensive over his policies as they might undermine those ex-colonials, who have not been antagonistic to traditional Dutch culture.

I realize that the situation is complicated; but this is a tactical gut reaction.

[LS]

Maybe. I know so little about Dutch politics, but someone has to make the case against Islam. For those who have ears . . .

[Faith65]

Watching!

[bert]

-—The blonde populist-—

Looks like a gray 30’s style permanent wave to me. If Trump is the example, gert has the hair for the job

[cgbg]

so whoever wins will need to form a coalition government and all the other parties have pledged to NOT form a coalition with Wilders party.

The other parties are "virtue signaling", making it clear that being over-run by Islamists is preferable to being considered a bad person by the elites and media.

[PapaBear3625]

The way I understand the process is that it’s not actually an election for who’s going to lead the gov, but which party is going to gain or loose seats. And the parties then have to form alliances or coalitions or whatever if one party isn’t absolute majority of seats. Then the alliance or collation or whatever with the most seats picks their guy to be leader.

Yep, that's how parliamentary government works. Traditionally, whichever party gets the most seats gets first shot at trying to form a coalition with other parties, and that coalition picks the PM.

The other parties have declared that they will not form a coalition with Geert, which means that if he gets 49% of the seats, ALL the other parties would have to form a "grand coalition" in order to have a government.

This will make it clear (hopefully) to the Dutch that there is only Geert vs The Establishment, with the Establishment wearing various masks.

[keats5]

Resistance against voluntary ethnic cleansing is now deemed “bigotry and hate.”

[BigEdLB]

Big turnout. Large undecided. Fasten seat belts

[Ohioan]

The haters are not those who would preserve their heritage--their cultural achievements over many generations of aspiration & struggle.

Here is a prospective on the American variation of the same dynamic as the Dutch now face: The Trump Haters

Stupidity & treason are not examples of tolerance.