Anti-immigration populist surge in wake of deadly Utrecht shooting stuns Dutch politics
- The Forum for Democracy came from nowhere to become the joint biggest party in the country’s senate
- Provincial elections took place just days after a suspected terrorist attack in the city of Utrecht that left three people dead
Dutch anti-immigration populists stunned Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become the joint biggest party in the senate on Thursday following elections that took place just days after a suspected terror attack.
“We stand here in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilisation,” he told a cheering crowd at a victory celebration late on Wednesday in a speech laced with classical references.
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The party, which only launched two years ago, will now be the largest in the upper house of parliament along with Rutte’s with 12 seats each, the Dutch news agency ANP said.
Dutch newspapers reacted with astonishment to the results. Algemeen Dagblad said “Baudet grabs mega-win” while De Telegraaf said simply: “Landslide”.
Rutte, an influential figure in Europe’s negotiations with Britain over its own departure from the EU, will now have to rely on other parties to get laws through the senate after his ruling coalition took a battering.
“We are being destroyed by the people who are supposed to be protecting us,” the telegenic 36-year-old told a crowd that chanted his name on Wednesday night.
“Successive Rutte governments have left our borders wide open, letting in hundreds of thousands of people with cultures completely different to ours.”
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Baudet has previously called for the Netherlands to immediately leave the EU but has recently softened his rhetoric as the chaos over Britain’s departure from the bloc escalates.
The former academic is known for controversial statements such as “women in general excel less in jobs and have less ambition”.
The coalition led by Rutte’s centre-right VVD party – set up after a 2017 general election to keep far-right leader Geert Wilders out of power after he too won a surge in votes – is set to collapse from 38 to 31 seats in the 75-seat senate.
“We are going to have to get to work,” Rutte told supporters. “We have to talk with other parties so we can continue to lead this country well.”
Rutte will now be left to rely on opposition parties to pass legislation, including the leftist ecological party GroenLinks (Green Left) party led by Jesse Klaver, which had a good night and is set to double its seats from four to eight.
The final shape of the senate will be determined in May by the 570 representatives elected to the country’s 12 provinces in Wednesday’s election.
Baudet meanwhile seemed to have taken votes from Wilders, whose anti-Islam Freedom Party is set to win five seats, down from nine, amid signs that his fierce rhetoric is alienating voters.
The Netherlands has had a long line of flamboyant populist leaders dating back to Pim Fortuyn, the gay anti-immigration politician who was assassinated in 2002 by an animal activist.