Anti-immigration populists surge in fragmented Dutch elections
An anti-immigration populist party has won the most votes in elections for the upper house of parliament in the Netherlands, days after a shooting in Utrecht, robbing the governing coalition of its majority and forcing it to seek new alliances on the left.
In a further fragmentation of Dutch politics, the Forum for Democracy (FvD) party of Thierry Baudet, a flamboyant former academic and columnist, is on course to win 12 seats in an upper house containing a record 12 parties, none with more than 12 seats.
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“We stand here in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilisation,” Baudet, 36, told cheering supporters late on Wednesday in a speech peppered with classical and literary references.
“We won because the country needs us.”
Accusing Rutte of ignoring voters, he said the “stupidity and arrogance” of the elites had been punished.
FVD campaigned on a platform calling for more direct democracy and less immigration, and against what Baudet refers to as “climate-change hysteria”.
A proponent of Dutch-first cultural, social and economic policies, Baudet wants improved relations with Russia, opposes the euro, and has called for the Netherlands to leave the EU – although he has since said he will see how Brexit plays out first.
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