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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Miriam Burrell

Geert Wilders: Dutch far-right populist lands seismic election victory

The far-right, anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders has won the most votes in the Dutch election.

With 98% of the votes counted, his Freedom Party (PVV) won 37 seats out of 150, well ahead of 25 for a joint Labour/Green ticket and 24 for the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The PVV calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum seekers and migrant pushbacks at the Dutch borders.

It also advocates the "de-Islamisation" of the Netherlands.

"Voters said 'we are sick of it. Sick to our stomachs'," a jubilant Mr Wilders said, adding he was now on a mission to end the "asylum tsunami" referring to the migration issue that came to dominate the campaign.

Mr Wilders will start looking for coalition partners on Thursday possibly become the country's prime minister.

A coalition of the Freedom Party, VVD, and the NSC party of centrist lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt would have 81 seats combined, making it the most obvious combination but which could still take months of difficult talks.

None of the parties he could form a government with share his anti-EU ideas.

"I am confident we can reach an agreement," Wilders said in his victory speech late on Wednesday. "We want to govern and ... we will govern."

Geert Wilders (REUTERS)

The election was called after the fourth and final coalition of Mr Rutte resigned in July after failing to agree to measures to rein in migration.

Mr Rutte was replaced by Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, a former refugee from Turkey who could have become the country's first female prime minister had her party won the most votes. Instead, it was forecast to lose 11 seats to end up with 23.

The election had been called a neck-and-neck race, but in the end Mr Wilders handily beat all opponents.

The result is the latest in a series of elections that is altering the European political landscape.

Mr Wilders' win comes two months after the return to power of the equally anti-EU populist Robert Fico in Slovakia, who has pledged to halt military aid to Ukraine and cut immigration.

Last year, Italy formed its most right-wing government since World War Two, after the election victory of Giorgia Meloni.

"The winds of change are here! Congratulations to Geert Wilders on winning the Dutch elections," Mr Orban said late on Wednesday.

In France, the far right was equally gleeful.

"It is because there are people who refuse to see the national torch extinguished that the hope for change remains alive in Europe," Marine Le Pen said.

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