Geert Wilders’ right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) is projected to be the big winner in the Dutch EU elections, based on exit polls released after voting closed on Thursday night. The anti-immigration PVV looks poised to increase their seats in the European Parliament from one to seven.
Following the publication of exit polls, Wilders told reporters: “This is a very positive sign and also a sign to the elites in Brussels that things will change. A signal that at least many of the Dutch voters gave today that they want a different European Union and they want a stronger nation state. Not more transferring of powers to Europe, but exactly the opposite.”
The exit polls suggest that Frans Timmermans’ red-green alliance alliance could win eight out of the 31 seats allocated to the Netherlands in the European Parliament (EP), a loss of one seat compared to its previous EP representation, making them outnumber PVV by only a single seat.
Wilders’ party, which won the Dutch national elections last November, recently announced that it had entered into a coalition with three other parties on the Right. One of their priorities will be to adopt one of the strictest asylum policies in Europe. “We want less immigration, we want to toughen up asylum rules and policies,” Wilders said on Thursday as he cast his ballot in The Hague.
Seven seats are also projected to go to three of Wilders’ coalition partners, centre-right VVD (4 seats), pro-farmer populist BBB (2) and conservative NSC (1). Further seats will be handed to the centre-right CDA (3), liberal D66 (3), conservative SGP (1), left-wing Party for the Animals (1), and Volt (1).
The exit polls point to a clear shift to the Right, especially with the gains made by the Party for Freedom and the BBB, which have campaigned in previous years against harmful EU policies such as the Migration Pact and the Green Deal, the latter having ignited farmers’ protests all around Europe.
The pro-EU red-green alliance kept a brave demeanour in the face of the large expected gains for Wilders’ PVV. Its most prominent politician, Frans Timmermans—former European Commission Vice-President and Green Deal ‘Czar’—instead put the focus on his list being the one expected to get the most votes. Timmermans said “it’s an important signal that all pro-European parties did well in this election. It shows that a majority of people in the Netherlands want to participate in building a strong Europe.”
In its assessment of the exit poll, conservative think tank MCC Brussels wrote that “the EU bubble might be relieved that their man Timmermans comes out just ahead of Wilders. But the real story here is that the populist moment is here: as the EU elite feared.”
Official results will be published at 11p.m. (Central European time) on Sunday, June 9th, once voting in all EU member states has come to a close.
