Posted on 06/10/2010 5:01:37 AM PDT by Eurotwit
The spectacular election breakthrough of the far-right anti-Muslim Party for Freedom shocked the Netherlands on Thursday as two mainstream parties braced for weeks of coalition haggling.
The pro-business Liberal VVD party had 31 seats and the Labour party (PvdA) 30, with 98 percent of the vote counted. But far-right PVV leader Geert Wilders demanded a share of government after his party came third with 24, more than doubling its seats in the 150 member parliament.
"Nobody in The Hague can bypass the PVV anymore," said Wilders, whose party wants an end to immigration from Muslim countries and a ban on new mosques and the Koran.
"We want to be part of the new government," declared Wilders, a distinctive figure with his shock of dyed blonde hair who has to live at secret addresses because of his controversial political stand.
"The impossible has happened," he told a party gathering, hailing the PVV as "the biggest winner" of the election. "The Netherlands chose more security, less crime, less immigration and less Islam."
The Christian Democratic Action party of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was pushed into fourth place and he resigned as party leader and from his parliamentary seat after eight years as Dutch premier.
Having been a part of nearly every Dutch government since World War II, the Christian Democrats lost 20 seats to end at 21. Balkenende's latest coalition collapsed in February over the country's Afghanistan military mission.
"A divided Netherlands" said the front page headline on the NRC Next newspaper summing up the election results.
With economic concerns dominating the campaign, the Liberal party led by Mark Rutte had been ahead in pre-election polls with a promise to cut public spending by about 45 billion euros (54 billion dollars) over the next four years. The VVD's support appeared to drain away in the final 48 hours though it still increased its number of lawmakers from 21.
Labour, led by Amsterdam ex-mayor Job Cohen, had promised more "careful" savings, the retention of social benefits and higher taxes for the rich. It lost two seats from the previous parliament.
The election was the first in a eurozone country since the Greek financial crisis erupted and has been closely watched to see how the public reacts to Europe's wave of austerity. Voter turnout was 74 percent, the lowest since 1998.
The VVD had also promised to eradicate the public deficit, which was 5.3 percent of GDP last year, to shrink the government and parliament, lower income taxes and cap civil servant pay rises while raising the retirement age by two years to 67.
Rutte has set a target date of July 1 for the establishment of a new government. "We do not exclude any party," he said ahead of the polls, as asked about a possible coalition with the far right.
He was previously reported as saying that a coalition with Labour was unlikely. Cohen has ruled out cooperation with the PVV.
The maverick Wilders has earned notoriety around the world with his campaign to "stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands."
Wilders, who has called Islam a fascist religion and likens the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf", is known abroad for his 17-minute commentary, "Fitna", which was termed "offensively anti-Islamic" by UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
He goes on trial in the Netherlands in October on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims. He was barred from entering Britain last year to stop him spreading "hatred and violent messages."
The deadlocked result means that the PVV cannot be ruled out of coalition talks which observers say will be long and complicated.
"Never has the voter's message been so mixed. A stable governing coalition with three parties does not seem possible," said NRC Next daily. "Despair over coalition puzzle," said a headline in Het Financieele Dagblad, the financial daily.
"Outcome shreds political landscape" commented the liberal Volkskrant daily.
Among the other parties, the Socialist Party got 15 seats, down from 25, the Green GroenLinks and centrist D66 both made gains to get 10 and Christian Union five, losing one.
Official results will be released next Tuesday.
The Dutch have impressed me giving so much support to the pro-business agenda of Rutte in addition to the support for Wilders.
Rutte's party agenda sounds like almost "tea party'ish" in its smaller government agenda. Wilders is of course well known around here.
Cheers.
Great news! Congratulations.
Interesting indeed.
The Dutch are showing signs of life.
Thanks for the ping...the Dutch have always been good businessmen, and had a practical and fair side to them. Great news...
Not so great news:
The Christian Democrats, the “Republicans” of the Netherlands lost nearly half of their votes, from 40 to 21. Wilders’ party is anti-Islamicist, but has also been socialistic, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-drug. (It’s sort of as if Wilders figured out that Muslims kill gays.)
(Hopefully, the CDA will wake up and start fishing for Wilders’ supporters’ votes.)
If only it could happen here!...............YES, WE CAN!..............
You can take the European out of Europe, but you can’t take the Europe out of the European............
Another tidbit:
Mark Rutte of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, which goes by its Dutch acronym VVD, shone in a nationally televised debate Wednesday, defending a platform that includes building nuclear plants and cutting government jobs.
“Windmills aren’t powered by wind,” Rutte jibed. “They’re powered by subsidies.”
Along with aggressive spending cuts, Rutte’s platform is almost as tough on crime and immigration as that of Wilders’ Freedom Party — for instance, making immigrants ineligible for unemployment compensation for the first 10 years after they arrive.
AP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkcXnYfQSPUksbhuaKnsoXMGFuVAD9FV6OPO0
Far too little, too late...
This looks like it could have been written by one of the Washington Post hacks. Whenever they can, they point out a physical feature of someone.
That’s why I find the results interesting. The CDA are the sort of “republicans” that have largely helped create the tea party phenomenon. They ruled with the socialists in labour for goodness sake.
You also are less than truthful when it comes to Wilder’s economic agenda. Wilders want to lower taxes and remove government regulations. Yeah, he might be more libertarian when it comes to social issues than some freepers, sure...and he wants to keep the retirement age as is.
That is where Rutte’s strong showing come in. People in Rutte’s party where sceptical about cooperating with Wilders - not because of his anti islamic immigration agenda, but due to the issues of rising the retirement age.
In any coalition, Wilders would have to give that up. I.e. move the the right on some of these economic issues whilst retaining the stance against islamism.
However, getting a working coalition out of this requires more than Rutte and Wilders and is going to be very very difficult.
No bias there!
FYI. Wilders’ socialistic party platform:
The Party for Freedom combines economic liberalism with a conservative programme towards immigration and culture. The party seeks tax cuts (€16 billion in the 2006 election programme), de-centralization, abolition of the minimum wage, and limiting child benefits and government subsidies. Regarding immigration and culture, the party believes that the Judeo-Christian and humanist traditions should be treated as the dominant culture in the Netherlands, and that immigrants should adapt accordingly. The party wants a halt to immigration from non-western countries. It is skeptical towards the EU, is against future EU enlargement with countries like Turkey and opposes a dominant presence of Islam in the Netherlands.[21] The party is also opposed to dual citizenship (see below).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Freedom#Political_issues
I meant to put socialistic in brackets.... And also add that economic liberalism means free market policies in case any one should be confused.
Cheers.
I suspect it's more like the "anti-national suicide" Party for Freedom.
I cheered LOUDLY today when NPR had a mini-stroke about this.
I’m so happy they had their little melt-down.
The proper term is "Islamifucation"
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