Geert Wilder's Moment - The Atlantic

[TomSea]

Geert Wilders' Moment

The far-right politician is hoping to ride the populist momentum in the Dutch elections.
    Yasmeen Serhan 11:14 AM ET News

Dutch voters will kick off the first of many pivotal European elections when they hold their parliamentary elections on March 15. Most polls show Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), running neck-and-neck with the ruling center-right People’s Party (VVD) for Freedom and Democracy, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The remaining 12 parties, which include mostly center and left-wing groups, are projected to each take anywhere between zero to 18 seats.

The results of the election could have an impact far beyond the Netherlands. Like the upcoming French and German elections, the Dutch vote is seen by some as a litmus test for establishment candidates facing Wilders, whose populist messaging has been compared to France’s Marine Le Pen and President Trump.

Opinion polls project Wilders’ PVV getting anywhere between 22 and 28 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament—far below the 76 needed to form a government. This is due, in part, to the Netherlands’ multi-party system, which makes coalition governments almost inevitable, Dr. Andrej Zaslove, an assistant professor of political science at the Radboud University Nijmegen, told me.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2017/03/geert-wilders-netherlands/518415/