Posted on 03/22/2019 7:53:23 PM PDT by aspasia
Dutch anti-immigration populists stunned Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become the largest party in the senate Thursday following elections that took place just days after a suspected terror attack.
Thierry Baudet's Forum for Democracy party, which also backs a "Nexit" from the EU, came from nowhere to win most votes in Wednesday's provincial elections, with more than 98 percent of ballots counted, the NOS broadcaster said.
The result will ring alarm bells across Europe where populists are expected to make big gains in European Parliament elections in May.
Baudet, 36, a former academic with a history of controversial comments about women and immigration who backs closer relations with Russia, accused Rutte of "arrogance and stupidity".
"We stand here in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilisation," he told a cheering crowd late Wednesday in a speech laced with classical references.
- 'Mega-win' -
(Excerpt) Read more at digitaljournal.com ...
Winning!
With a district-by-district plurality selection method like we have, an insurgent party has to either be willing to completely yield power to their ideological enemies while taking the torch from their "allies", have a party completely crash and burn (like the Whigs in the late 1850s) or start as a regionally powerful party.
If a super-Republican party were to start and take half the Republican votes the Democrats would win by landslides until either the super-Republicans or the Republicans prevailed and the other died.
Yeah, but we’re always hearing about the populists rising here and there. Been going on for 4 or 5 years. Yet, except for a few sane redoubts like Hungary and Poland, where is it making any difference in governance?
Thanks aspasia.
Italy for sure. Austria moving right. Paris is burning. Making gains in sweden as well.
Elsevier’s Arendo Joustra says that after such ‘punishment’ the government has only one option: step down. Joustra also puts the coalition’s loss and Forum’s gain firmly at the door of the climate agreement which has, Joustra says, ‘given birth to Baudet’. ‘Many down to earth Dutch people don’t want anything to do with the fervent and expensive climate measures contemplated by the coalition,’ he writes.
Press likes to push ultra this and far that, but it looks like the climate measures are what's not welcome.
Yes, Rutte no longer holds the Senate majority, but I have read that it will force his government to co-operate with the Green-Left Party, which is probably the most “progressive” party in the Netherlands - not the most socialist on economics, but the most pro-immigration and the most socially liberal.
This co-operation may cost Rutte’s party some votes in the next parliamentary election, but until then the Dutch government will - paradoxically - shift to the left.
These governments are subject to fickle voters, but the direction right now points toward a dimunition of the EU class. Rutte must now contend with two formidable rivals, Baudet and Wilders, and that's where the votes are.
Forum voor Democratie van 0 naar 13 zetels
VVD van 13 naar 12 zetels
CDA van 12 naar 9 zetels
GroenLinks van 4 naar 9 zetels
PvdA van 8 naar 7 zetels
D66 van 10 naar 6 zetels
PVV van 9 naar 5 zetels
ChristenUnie van 3 naar 4 zetels
SP van 9 naar 4 zetels
Partij voor de Dieren van 2 naar 3 zetels
50PLUS van 2 naar 2 zetels
SGP van 2 naar 2 zetels
DENK wint geen zetels
OSF wint geen zetels
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