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Dutch election results: "Continent rescued from Euroscepticism"

#1
C C Offline
Dutch PM Rutte on course for big victory over far-right Wilders
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN16M0MB

EXCERPT: The Netherlands' center-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte was on course for a resounding victory over anti-Islam and anti-EU Geert Wilders in an election on Wednesday, offering huge relief to other EU governments facing a wave of nationalism.

"It appears that the VVD will be the biggest party in the Netherlands for the third time in a row," a beaming Rutte told cheering supporters at a post-election party in The Hague. "Tonight we'll celebrate a little."

Rutte received congratulatory messages from European leaders and spoke with some by telephone. "It is also an evening in which the Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, said 'stop' to the wrong kind of populism," he said.

[...] The result was a relief to mainstream parties across Europe, particularly in France and Germany, where right-wing nationalists hope to make a big impact in elections this year, potentially posing an existential threat to the EU....
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#2
Yazata Offline
(Mar 16, 2017 04:55 AM)C C Wrote: Dutch PM Rutte on course for big victory over far-right Wilders

That's one way of spinning the results, I guess. Actually, Wilders' party increased its percentage of the vote, picked up five seats and is now the second largest party in the Dutch parliament and technically the official Dutch opposition party, I guess. Rutte's party lost eight of its 41 seats, but didn't do as badly as feared and it still came in first, so that's a sort-of victory I guess. But Wilders, his party and the views it represents aren't going away anytime soon.

The big news in the election was the almost total collapse of the former #2 opposition Labour party (Mr. Rutte's former coalition partner) which lost 29 of its 38 seats. Many of those labour voters seem to have moved over to fringe parties like the left-greens.

The result is that the Dutch parliament is far more fragmented than it used to be, with lots of small special interest parties each holding a few seats.  

Quote:Rutte received congratulatory messages from European leaders and spoke with some by telephone. "It is also an evening in which the Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, said 'stop' to the wrong kind of populism," he said.

Perhaps Mr. Rutte needs to define what "the wrong kind of populism" means. Why do the American elections and the UK's Brexit vote represent "the wrong kind of populism" in his mind? What does he have to offer that he thinks is better? His posing after the election as the champion of the European establishment is ironic since Rutte only won the election by adopting Wilders-style rhetoric (such as telling 'migrants' that if they don't like the Netherlands' open and permissive culture, they should leave) and by picking a very public fight with Turkey just days before the vote.

I think that the gentleman was just spouting bullshit and bravado as he sensed that he'd just dodged a bullet in the election.
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#3
RainbowUnicorn Offline
(Mar 20, 2017 04:06 PM)Yazata Wrote:
(Mar 16, 2017 04:55 AM)C C Wrote: Dutch PM Rutte on course for big victory over far-right Wilders

That's one way of spinning the results, I guess. Actually, Wilders' party increased its percentage of the vote, picked up five seats and is now the second largest party in the Dutch parliament and technically the official Dutch opposition party, I guess. Rutte's party lost eight of its 41 seats, but didn't do as badly as feared and it still came in first, so that's a sort-of victory I guess. But Wilders, his party and the views it represents aren't going away anytime soon.

The big news in the election was the almost total collapse of the former #2 opposition Labour party (Mr. Rutte's former coalition partner) which lost 29 of its 38 seats. Many of those labour voters seem to have moved over to fringe parties like the left-greens.

The result is that the Dutch parliament is far more fragmented than it used to be, with lots of small special interest parties each holding a few seats.  

Quote:Rutte received congratulatory messages from European leaders and spoke with some by telephone. "It is also an evening in which the Netherlands, after Brexit, after the American elections, said 'stop' to the wrong kind of populism," he said.

Perhaps Mr. Rutte needs to define what "the wrong kind of populism" means. Why do the American elections and the UK's Brexit vote represent "the wrong kind of populism" in his mind? What does he have to offer that he thinks is better? His posing after the election as the champion of the European establishment is ironic since Rutte only won the election by adopting Wilders-style rhetoric (such as telling 'migrants' that if they don't like the Netherlands' open and permissive culture, they should leave) and by picking a very public fight with Turkey just days before the vote.

I think that the gentleman was just spouting bullshit and bravado as he sensed that he'd just dodged a bullet in the election.

The Nederlands will never roll over for facism or the oppresion of women or cultural genocide.
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