29 h. ago The Guardian view on the Dutch election: an uplifting victory for the politics of hope not hate | Editorial

Targeting the negativity of the far right, the big winner of last week’s poll was able to cut through with votersOne of the tightest elections in Dutch history produced an outcome so close that first steps in negotiating a new coalition government have yet to begin. But at a time when the forward march of the far right across Europe is dominating headlines, sapping the confidence of mainstream parties, one uplifting takeaway was immediately clear: a less divisive kind of politics can still cut through with the public, if it is prosecuted with conviction and panache.The big and unexpected winner of last week’s poll was 38-year-old Rob Jetten, the charismatic leader of the centrist liberal party D66, which almost tripled its vote and is set to top the polls by a whisker. Basing his campaign on the Obama-style slogan “Yes we can”, Mr Jetten presented himself as an optimistic unifier to an electorate exhausted by the polarising politics of Geert Wilders, whose anti-i...

Politics

4 d. ago Dutch election in dead heat with a few thousand votes separating Geert Wilders' anti

The Dutch election climaxed in an unprecedented cliffhanger on Thursday, with only a few thousand votes separating Geert Wilders' hard-right party and a pro-EU party.

Politics

4 d. ago Geert Wilders faces shutout as centrists hail huge gains in knife

Far right is neck-and-neck with liberal D66 but all major mainstream parties have ruled out working with anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders is almost certain to be shut out of the next Dutch government after a knife-edge general election in which support for his far-right Freedom party (PVV) slumped and the liberal-progressive D66 party made spectacular gains.With more than 98% of votes counted from Wednesday’s election, the two parties were neck-and-neck on a projected 26 seats each in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament, with the difference between them only a couple of thousand votes. Continue reading...

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5 d. ago Voting opens in Netherlands as polls suggest second Gert Wilders win

Major parties rule out coalition with rightwinger, giving his party little chance of being part of governmentVoting is under way in parliamentary elections in the Netherlands that polls suggest could again be won by the anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom party (PVV), although there is little chance of it being part of the next government.The PVV, which finished a shock first in the previous election and formed a four-party all-conservative coalition that lasted barely a year before collapsing, is marginally ahead in the polls and forecast to return between 24 and 28 MPs to the 150-seat parliament. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Voting opens in Netherlands as polls suggest second Geert Wilders win

Major parties rule out coalition with rightwinger, giving his party little chance of being part of governmentVoting is under way in parliamentary elections in the Netherlands that polls suggest could again be won by the anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom party (PVV), although there is little chance of it being part of the next government.The PVV, which finished a shock first in the previous election and formed a four-party all-conservative coalition that lasted barely a year before collapsing, is marginally ahead in the polls and forecast to return between 24 and 28 MPs to the 150-seat parliament. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago ‘Open hostility has become normalised’: Dutch Muslims fear rise of far right as general election looms

The poll is seen as a litmus test for the Netherlands and its democratic ideals, as activists decry a hardening of political discourse driven by Geert WildersThe drawing depicted two women; a young blonde with a friendly expression and a scowling older woman wearing a headscarf. On top of the image was a nod to this month’s general election in the Netherlands, along with the phrase “The choice is yours.”The social media post, made by the far-right, anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, prompted a record 14,000 complaints to the country’s anti-discrimination hotline. “Many of those who called to report the image compared it to Nazi propaganda from the second world war,” the hotline said in a statement, adding that the 19 anti-discrimination agencies associated with the hotline had flagged the post to police, amid concerns that it could be an incitement to hatred. Continue reading...

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