Dutch Populists Score Big in Recent Elections

Populism continues to roar across Europe as Dutch voters propelled populist party, Forum for Democracy (FvD), to victory in several provincial elections on March 21, 2019.

A deadly killing spree on March 19, 2019, where a 37-year old Turkish man, Gokmen Tanis, killed three people and injured another three may have given FvD an extra boost at the polls.

Nevertheless, FvD’s victory has positioned it as one of two largest political parties in the Dutch Senate. Their victory is no coincidence either as Dutch citizens have become increasingly frustrated with the EU’s mass migration policies.

International analysis of recent Dutch elections asserts that the Utrecht shooting gave FvD “a surge of last-minute support” at the polls.

Thierry Baudet, the Forum for Democracy Party leader, blamed the Dutch government’s lax immigration polices”. Baudet even stated a day before the elections took place that voting for political rivals People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) comes with a big risk:

 If people want more deadly shootings like the one in Utrecht, then they have to vote for the VVD.

Baudet and his party are riding a populist wave that has become a force in countries ranging from Spain all the way to Estonia. Baudet has placed emphasis on more military spending, tighter borders, relaxed income taxation, and potential withdrawal from the EU. The populist leader said that “the voters in the Netherlands have spread their wings and shown their true power” in the wake of his party’s success at the poll on Wednesday.

Baudet declares that his party has “been called to the front because we have to. Because the country needs us”. The populist FvD is now expected to take 12 seats in the upper house of the Dutch Parliaments, which matches Prime Minister Mark Rutter’s VVD party. FvD’s unexpected rise has caused VVD to lose its majority for the 75-seat Senate ahead of the rapidly approaching May elections.

Baudet claims that “We are standing in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilization in the world.”

The rise of Baudet is just another sign that Europe is waking up to the perils of open borders.

The No-Go Zones that have dotted France and the United Kingdom have now made their way to the Netherlands. An Amsterdam ombudsman has gone as far as to describe Amsterdam at night as a “lawless jungle”.

With these election results in, it looks like the Netherlands is the next country to embrace Europe’s increasingly powerful populist wave. It looks like populism is here to stay and the more the EU tries to maintain open borders, the stronger populism will become.

 

 

 

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