Dutch voters head to polls in a knife-edge election focused on housing and Wilders
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch voters head to the polls on a knife edge Wednesday vote Following a campaign focusing on immigration, the housing crisis and whether parties would work with anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders if the Freedom Party repeats the same decision Stunning victory from two years ago.
The vote took place in an environment of deep polarization in this country of 18 million people. violence At the recent anti-immigrant rally in The Hague and at nationwide protests against new refugee centres.
Polls show Wilders’ party, which has called for a complete halt to refugees entering the Netherlands, is on track to win the most seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, but other more moderate parties are closing the gap and pollsters warn many people are waiting until the last minute to decide who to vote for.
Polls open at 7.30am and close at 9pm. Publishers publish an exit poll as soon as voting ends and update it half an hour later.
Voters will be able to cast their ballots in many places, from city halls to schools, as well as historic windmills, churches, the zoo, a former prison in Arnhem and the iconic Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam.
Once the results are in, parties will have to negotiate how to form the next coalition government in this country where the system of proportional representation virtually guarantees that no party can govern alone.
Mainstream parties have refused to work with Wilders, arguing that his decision to undermine the four-party coalition that left office earlier this year over a dispute over a crackdown on immigration underlined that he was an unreliable coalition partner.
Rob Jetten, leader of the center-left D66 party, which has risen in the polls as the campaign has progressed, said in the final televised debate that his party wanted to rein in immigration but also accommodate refugees fleeing war and violence.
And he told Wilders that voters “can choose again tomorrow to listen to your petulant hatred for another 20 years or to go to work with positive energy and fight and solve this problem.”
Former European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who now leads the center-left bloc of Labor and the Green Left, also took aim at Wilders in the final debate, saying he was “looking forward to the day – and that day is tomorrow – when we can put an end to the Wilders era.”
Despite being the largest party in parliament, Wilders rejects allegations that he has failed to fulfill his 2023 election campaign promises and accuses other parties of obstructing his plans.
“If I were prime minister, which I won as leader of the largest party, then we would implement this agenda,” he said.
Wilders gave up becoming prime minister during negotiations after the last election because he did not have the support of potential coalition partners.
The elections could result in the New Social Contract, a reformist party that won 20 seats in the last election and joined the outgoing coalition, being wiped off the Dutch political map; polls predict that this party could lose all or almost all of its seats. The drop in popularity comes after an apparent backlash against the party’s decision to join a coalition with Wilders and after the party’s popular leader Pieter Omtzigt quit politics in April, citing mental health.
