confirmation of the electoral victory of the far right, which meets resistance to form a coalition

Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party won 37 of the 150 seats in the lower house, according to final results from the Dutch electoral commission.

The electoral victory of the far right was confirmed in the Netherlands on Friday December 1st. The Freedom Party (PVV) won 37 of the 150 seats in the lower house, the Dutch electoral commission said. This formalization comes at a time when its leader, Geert Wilders, is struggling to form a government coalition with other parties opposed to his Islamophobic positions.

All eyes are now on the ability of the politician with the famous peroxide hairstyle to put together a government coalition and become the country’s first far-right head of government, while the first discussions proved heated. In the highly fragmented Dutch political system, where no party is strong enough to govern alone, elections are usually followed by months of negotiations to achieve a coalition.

Difficult negotiations for a coalition

At the end of the vote, Geert Wilders said he was in favor of a coalition with the pro-reform party New Social Contract (NSC, 20 seats), the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB, seven seats) and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, 24 seats), center-right, from which outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte comes. It needs 76 seats to form a stable coalition and the electoral commission has confirmed that the four parties combined will achieve this without problem.

The PVV should be able to count on the BBB, born from protests by the agricultural sector against government projects to reduce nitrogen emissions, which came out on top in the provincial elections in March, becoming the largest party in the Senate. But to have a majority, Geert Wilders also needs the VVD, and the NSC, created last summer by the popular MP Pieter Omtzigt. However, these two parties have so far refused to begin negotiations.