The opening match of the European elections was played in the Netherlands. According to the exit polls, Geert Wilders’ PVV has comes second, after the GroenLinks-PvdA partnership. Yet Wilders is strengthening his position as political leader.
The European elections in the Netherlands have, as expected, turned out to be a contest between the right-wing radical PVV and the GroenLinks-PvdA partnership. Geert Wilders’ PVV could only win. In 2019, the party barely won a seat, but now it has seven according to the exit polls. This is how the party makes the biggest gains. But she probably won’t get the most seats. GroenLinks-PvdA, led by Bas Eickhout, has eight seats.
This was also evident from Wilders’ first reaction. Of course he was very satisfied with the six-seat gain, but he hoped that his party would still become the largest in the final results. Yet he strengthens his position as the strong man of the new government. After all, the entire European campaign was in the shadow of the formation of the new cabinet. The four right-wing parties (PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB) that concluded a coalition agreement are still looking for ministers to staff the new cabinet, led by super civil servant Dick Schoof.
In 2019, PvdA and GroenLinks emerged separately. Together they won nine seats. Frans Timmermans, party leader for the PvdA, then became the big winner. He doubled the number of seats for the Social Democrats to six. Together, the two parties are therefore worse off. Yet there is satisfaction in the left-wing camp. If GroenLinks-PvdA wins, it will send a completely different signal than a victory for the PVV, Timmermans said this week. “That is a significant difference for the international image.”
