Election blow for the Dutch government

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Dutch voters have given Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government a dramatic reminder during the Provincial Council elections. On the other hand, according to preliminary results, the new populist peasant-citizen movement BBB won a landslide victory. It took advantage of voter dissatisfaction and immediately became the strongest political force. This is evident from the preliminary results published by the TV channel NOS on Thursday evening.

Politicians spoke of a political earthquake. According to observers, the election result threatens the stability of the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Mark Rutte that has been in power for more than twelve years. Prime Minister Rutte – of the right-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) – was disappointed. “It’s not the win we hoped for.”

Turmoil in the Senate

The protest party BBB, on the other hand, was very happy after the forecasts appeared. BBB chairman Caroline van der Plas spoke of a clear signal. “They can no longer get around us. We will rule.”

Not only the parliaments of the twelve provinces were elected, but indirectly also the upper house of the national parliament. According to the forecasts in the Senate, the four coalition parties will only receive a small third (about 30 percent) of the total of 75 seats. It is doubtful whether the Rutte cabinet will succeed in pushing through important laws on agricultural reform, climate protection and asylum policy. The provisional final result was not expected until Thursday.

Also popular in cities

The main subject of these elections was the announced drastic environmental regulations for agriculture. Farmers in particular have been protesting for months. The anger of the peasants became an expression of general discontent. The BBB protest movement not only grew strongly in the countryside, but also in the cities. She ran for the first time in the 2021 general election and received one percent of the vote. And now it came out at about 19 percent, according to the forecasts.

The Social Democrats and the Greens contested the election together for the first time and made slight gains. The far-right Forum for Democracy, which surprisingly won the elections four years ago, suffered heavy losses. The right-wing populist Geert Wilders also lost slightly. (SDA)

Source: Blick