Far-right populists score stunning win in Dutch provincial vote

Far-right Forum for Democracy wins most seats in Dutch provincial elections.

By ELINE SCHAART

3/20/19, 11:23 PM CET

Updated 3/21/19, 12:59 PM CET

Far-right populist newcomer Forum for Democracy stunned the Dutch political establishment after winning the most votes in provincial elections, according to a preliminary count early Thursday.

Strong gains made by both the Euroskeptics and the Greens in Wednesday’s election mean Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is on course to lose control of the upper house of parliament.

The big winner, though, is the Forum for Democracy party led by 36-year-old Thierry Baudet. The party holds two seats in parliament after entering politics just three years ago. It will now have an equal number of Senate seats as Rutte’s liberal VVD, but more votes.

In a speech to supporters after the election results, Baudet said the arrogance of the elite has been punished.

“We are standing amidst the debris of what was once the greatest and most beautiful civilization the world has ever known,” he said, adding that “we are undermined by our universities, our journalists … and administrators.”

The Greens more than doubled their seats to nine, while other opposition parties, including Geert Wilders' Freedom Party and the Socialists, lost ground, down by four and five seats respectively.

Rutte’s center-right coalition — of his liberal VVD, CDA, D66 and the small Christian Union — had a one-seat majority in the Senate before the vote, but is set to lose seven seats overall.

Voters were choosing new regional parliaments, which will determine the makeup of the new Senate. The ballots were held two days after a Turkish-born man was arrested following a shooting in Utrecht in which three people were killed.

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Dutch right-wing populism, dominated for a decade by Wilders and his Freedom Party, has been transformed in the past two years by the rapid growth of the Forum for Democracy. Baudet shocked establishment parties this week by blaming the government's migration policy for the Utrecht attack just hours after the shooting. All other parties had suspended campaigning.

“This is a combination of an honor killing and a half-terrorist motive,” Baudet told supporters at a rally, Reuters reported. The shooter's motive is still not clear.

Forum for Democracy is projected to win 12 percent of the Dutch votes in the European Parliament election in May.

Turnout in the provincial elections was 54 percent, slightly higher than the last such vote four years ago, but lower than in general elections.

In order to achieve a working majority in the Senate, Rutte's coalition will have to rely on the support of one or more opposition parties.

It's unlikely that Baudet's party will work with the government. It rejects, for example, the need for climate change policies, a major issue for the Dutch government. Last week, Baudet suddenly wavered on his long-standing support for the Netherlands leaving the EU.

The election results come at a time when Rutte is gaining prominence as a voice for liberal economic policies and as EU leaders gear up for debate about the bloc's future, in which the Netherlands has been trying to fill the void that will be left by Britain's departure from the EU.

https://www.politico.eu/article/mark-rutte-to-lose-senate-majority-after-dutch-local-elections/