Huge sighs of relief are being breathed at the European Commission and in establishment quarters in Germany and France at the outcome of the Dutch election which was held yesterday. With most of the poll counted, it is clear that the VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte will emerge as the largest single party with 33 of the 150 seats in the new parliament. This should mean that he will be able to form a coalition government. The second largest party emerged as the nationalist, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-EU Freedom Party of Geert Wilders. It just edged out the Christian Democrats and D66 (liberal) parties which won 19 seats each.
At one point, the Freedom party was tipped to be the largest party following the election, but its support waned at the critical time.
Mr Rutte declared that his countrymen had rejected the "the wrong kind of populism", adding that: "The Netherlands said 'Whoa! We want to stick to the course we have - safe and stable and prosperous". Given that his party lost 5 seats and the “wrong kind of populism” now represents 13% of MPs, this could be premature. For his part, Mr Wilders said "It's not the 30 seats I hoped for but we have gained seats. This patriotic spring will happen."
Mr Rutte’s party lost eight of the seats it held going into the election, but the junior coalition party, the Labour Party, took a hammering losing 29 of the 38 seats it held prior to the vote, to the benefit of the Green-Left which gained 10 seats taking its representation to 14 MPs and the Freedom Party which gained 5 seats taking it to 20.
Turnout came in at 80% which is the highest level seen for 30 years; analysts suggest that this would have helped liberal and pro-European parties and was no doubt partially attributable to the Brexit referendum and US presidential election outcomes.
All eyes will now turn to France which holds its initial round of their presidential election next month which will select two candidates to advance to the run-off stage. Many analysts predict that Marine Le Pen of the Front National, a populist right wing party, will make it into the run-off stage.