Geert Wilders overtaken by centre left in EU elections

The Dutch Labour/Green alliance has narrowly overtaken the far-right party of Geert Wilders in elections for the European parliament, in a first setback for nationalist forces across the continent.

Voters in the Netherlands cast more ballots for the centre-left opposition than for Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV), which came first in national elections six months ago, according to an exit poll published on Thursday. The final results are expected on Sunday, when most of the other EU countries vote.

Frans Timmermans, leader of the Labour/Green alliance, hailed his victory against extremism as the poll suggested his grouping would secure eight of the 31 Dutch seats in the EU parliament, while the PVV would get 7.

“This gives us the strength to keep fighting for a social and green Europe,” said Timmermans, a former EU commissioner.

The Dutch exit polls are an encouraging sign for centrist parties that nationalist forces, which are projected to increase from a fifth to a quarter of the seats in the European parliament, may not fare as well as expected on Sunday.

Bas Eickhout, lead candidate of the European Greens, and a candidate for the Dutch Labour/Green alliance, said: “This is a signal for the whole of Europe: progressive politics can stop the rise of the far right.

“Dutch voters have sent a message of hope to the hundreds of millions of Europeans who will cast their votes in the coming days: if we mobilise and go to the polls, we can create a strong, green and social Europe that offers solutions for a better future.”

Estimated turnout in the Netherlands increased by a tenth to 46.8 per cent, the highest since 1989.

When taken together with other centrist parties, the pro-EU forces in the Netherlands secured more than two-thirds of the seats in the European parliament, according to the exit polls. Their votes will count when commission president Ursula von der Leyen seeks a majority in the 720-strong assembly, in a vote expected in mid-July.

The far-right PVV had just one seat in the outgoing parliament, and appeared to gain votes from the even more extreme, pro-Russia Forum for Democracy, according to the exit polls. An assistant to a Forum for Democracy MEP last month was accused by Belgian police of being part of a covert Russian influence operation aimed at peddling pro-Kremlin propaganda.

Wilders said his party’s advance from one to seven seats meant the PVV was “the biggest winner”.

An Ipsos poll for broadcaster NOS found that more than half of the PVV voters from November elections stayed at home. There were similar figures for the other three parties joining the coalition government.  

“Getting Eurosceptic voters mobilised for European parliament elections can be challenging,” said Sarah de Lange, politics professor at the University of Amsterdam.

She said the exit poll showed the three main concerns among voters were migration and asylum, healthcare and the national economy. 

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