PVV leader Geert Wilders hoped to ride a wave of support for the Dutch coalition he has put together after winning big in national elections in November.
Gasps of shock and cheers of joy rippled through the packed hall where members of the GreenLeft-Labour bloc had gathered to watch the results of the exit poll. The results seem to suggest that the GreenLeft-Labour joint list will win eight out of the 31 seats the Netherlands gets in the European Parliament.
Even louder cheers were heard when it was projected the radical right Freedom and Democracy Party is projected to win seven seats. Pro-European parties are expected to have picked up two thirds of the votes.
“Pro European parties in the Netherlands did very well in this election which sends a clear signal to the rest of Europe that there is no necessity to work with the radical right. The assumption that the radical right would sweep this election has not materialized in the Netherlands,” former First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans told Euronews.
Timmermans currently leads the GreenLeft-Labour alliance.
The GreenLeft-Labour combination ran on a joint list for the first time in European elections, but will split up once it gets to Brussels. Labour is part of the Socialists and Democrats and the GreenLeft are part of the Greens.
There was no election party organized by Geert Wilders Party for Freedom and Democracy, despite the result. Wilders is still projected to win seven seats, a hefty increase from five years ago when the party won only a single seat.
During the party’s single campaign event on Wednesday, Wilders was mobbed by the press and his supporters.
“I’m not washing this hand till December,” said a man who shook Wilders’ hand.
Wilders was hoping to ride a wave of support for the Dutch coalition he has managed to put together after winning big in national elections here in November. He sees the rise of the right as part of a bigger trend.
“The West is waking up and you see parties like mine growing in popularity all over the European Union. The people are waking up and I hope for them to stay awake,” he told Euronews.
“The next few days are crucial for the future of Europe. Will it be with more borders and immigration or will it be a lot tougher with not an expansion of the European union but returning legislative powers to the capitals? And that is something we are aiming for.”
Off to the side stood Sebastian Stoteler, the man who will actually be going to Brussels for the PVV. Stoteler only has a couple of media appearances under his belt so remains largely unknown. On his website he calls Islam a totalitarian ideology similar to fascism and Nazism.
The radical right party had previously always advocated for a withdrawal from the EU, a so-called Nexit, but changed course this year.
Wilders now says he wants to change Europe from within. Wilders is hoping to join the Identity and Democracy Group in Parliament, which is also home to Marine le Pen’s Rasssemblement National.
“If you want to change the big institutions like the European Union, it is more effective if you do it from the inside. So if parties like mine, who it looks like they are winning all over Europe, from Austria, France and Belgium to Italy and Spain and other countries, if we would join forces and perhaps form a big group of MEPS that will be able and strong enough to change the European policy from within,” he told journalists while campaigning on Wednesday.
Turnout was the highest since 1989 with 47% of voters going to the polls. In 2019, turnout was 42%.
