Exit polls show right-wing Dutch leader wins Netherlands election

A right-wing, anti-Islam Dutch politician is projected to win the country’s election. 

GB News reported Wednesday exit polls show Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders is set to win around 35 of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament. 

This is more than double the number the Freedom Party won in the 2021 election. 

The Freedom Party was nine seats ahead of former European Union commissioner Frans Timmermans’ Labour-Green Left coalition. 

Despite Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte leaving, the Conservatives finished in third place with 23 seats. 

Wilders has been nicknamed the Dutch Trump for his blond hair and radical speech. 

Wilders’ anti-Islam, anti-immigrant, and anti-EU messaging seemed to have swept into first place in the Dutch election. 

The Freedom Party has proposed to ban mosques and the Quran and forbid Islamic headscarves in government buildings. 

He is a hardline Euroskeptic, who wants to leave the EU in a Brexit-style fashion. If it won, it promised an EU referendum dubbed Nexit. 

“The voters have spoken tonight, and they have said that they are fed up,” he said. 

“We are going to make sure that Dutch voters will be put first again.” 

Since he has been elected, he said it will curb the asylum tsunami. He added he “will have to find ways to live up to the hopes of our voters, to put the Dutch back on number one.”

He called for other parties to work with him, saying it was time to look for agreements and not ignore him. 

“This exit poll is historic; it is the biggest shift we have ever seen in the Netherlands,” said Dutch political scientist Tom van der Meer.  

Van der Meer gave three explanations for the win. 

He acknowledged the first explanation is the Netherlands had a centrist cabinet for 11 years. In response, he said voters went to the flanks. 

The second reason was migration was a large theme, and voters think of the Freedom Party when they think of that issue.

People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy leader Dilan Yesilgoz opened the door to the Freedom Party as a coalition partner. In the Netherlands, people have long been looking for a party that is more outspoken than the People’s Party, but can govern. 

“Now that door to the People’s Party is open, they have found it,” said Van der Meer.

While Wilders has won the most seats, it is unlikely he will end up as prime minister.

No single party can win enough seats to govern alone, and three large parties behind him have made clear they have no desire to work with him.