With five weeks to go before Dutch elections, politian Geert Wilders’ Party of Freedom (PVV) is leading all the major polls with just below 20 percent of the votes. If Wilders’ PVV manages to emerge as the single largest party, as polls currently suggest, the 53 year old Dutch politician could be called to build the next coalition government with him as Prime Minister.
Capitalising on last year’s Brexit vote and President Trump’s victory in the U.S. election, Wilders is campaigning with the slogan “The Netherlands is ours again.” His 11-point programme aims to “de-Islamise” the country and end the E.U.-mandated Open Borders Policy.
With 28 other parities in the fray, Wilders success would depend on his ability to form a coalition government. So far, most of the parties have rejected the idea of joining Wilders-led government. But going by the past record, other parties might end up working with Wilders.
The Netherlands-based Dutch News reports:
On Sunday, the latest poll of polls, an amalgam of five separate opinion polls, suggests the PVV has the support of 18 percent of voters and would win between 25 and 31 seats in the 150 seat lower house of parliament.
Dutch projections come at a bad time for the E.U. and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Wilders vows to take his country out of the E.U., saying he will call for a Brexit-type referendum as soon as he assumes the office of Prime Minister. “The European Union is a political bureaucratic organisation that took away our identity and our national sovereignty. So, I would get rid of the European Union and be a nation-state again.” Wilders told media last week.
The Netherlands belongs to the six core state that founded European Economic Community (ECC) — the predecessor of the E.U. — almost 60 years ago in 1967. Netherlands’ exit from the E.U, or Nexit, will undoubtedly spell doom for the German-French ‘European Project”.
The trouble for Brussels doesn’t just end there. In France, Marine Le Pen of Front National has 26.5 percent lead over her conservative rival in the polls. The first round of the two-stage presidential election is set to take place in April, followed by a possible second round in May. “Le Pen will kill the EU,” her presidential rival Emmanuel Macron ‘warned‘ the French voters this week.
German Chancellor Merkel is slipping in polls ahead of September election. Her Pro-E.U. Social Democratic challenger Martin Schulz continues to gain ground, with right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party also gaining strength as third-largest political force. Embattled Merkel is doubling down on her ‘Refugee Welcome’ Policy, reiterated this month that there will be no upper-limit to migrant intake if she succeeds in her re-election bid.
With Merkel serving as the poster girl for unregulated mass-migration into Europe, AfD is surging ahead in recent German polls. With more than eight months to go, German election remains up for grabs.
With millions of voters in Germany, France, and the Netherlands heading for polls this year, 2017 could be the year of democratic ‘European Spring’ as nation-states of Eurozone take back their sovereignty back.
Video: PVV leader Geert Wilders vows to take the Netherlands out of the European Union, February 2017
[Cover image courtesy EuroNews, YouTube]
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