The predictions were that the first avalanche would start from Holland, which would then trigger the landslide that would overwhelm Europe. And instead the first exit polls throw a bucket of cold water on the enthusiasm of the European right, including that of Giorgia Meloni in Italy. The Netherlands was the first to go to the polls yesterday (6 June), and despite polls stating that Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) would win a third of the 31 seats made available to the nation, apparently instead it should only have seven. For the party that will sit on the Identity and Democracy benches in Brussels together with Matteo Salvini’s League, it is still an excellent result compared to 2019, when it did not elect any deputies, but it is not the long-awaited and proclaimed success.
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Wilders optimistic
In the end it was neck and neck with the Labor-Greens alliance (GroenLinks-PvdA) of Frans Timmermans, the father of the Green Deal, who got eight. “We are by far the biggest winners tonight,” Wilders told reporters, expressing hope that the PVV could still emerge victorious once the official results are announced on June 9, after all 27 member countries have cast their votes. their vote. “It’s a wonderful result,” he said, showing perhaps excessive optimism. In the national elections of November 22nd he had won 37 of the 150 seats, the relative majority of the Chamber of The Hague, but apparently the Dutch did not show the same enthusiasm towards him in the European elections.
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The turnout factor
“By counting all the seats of the pro-European parties, we are telling the rest of Europe: it is not a given that the radical right will win these elections!”, exulted Timmermans. “Look what the Netherlands has done: Do the same!”, added the former Commission vice-president. The turnout was close to 47% and was the highest in the last 35 years, and this would have been the decisive factor for the victory of the pro-European parties. According to research conducted by Ipsos I&O for the broadcaster Nos, most people who voted for one of the four parties destined to form a right-wing government in the Netherlands stayed at home.
As many as 59% of those who supported the New Social Contract (NSC) of Pieter Omtzigt, who will govern with Wilders, stayed at home in November, as did 56% of those who voted for the PVV. Compared to the results of the 2023 general elections, support for the right-wing coalition parties fell from 56.3% to 38.5%, while support for the left-wing alliance increased from almost 16% to almost 22%. Polls open today in Ireland and the Czech Republic. Latvia, Malta, Slovakia will vote on Saturday.
