Netherlands Election: politics back to the center and pro-Europe - Wilders ends up biggest loser

Mark Rutte of the VVD

The votes have been counted and it is nearly certain that the Liberal VVD of Mark Rutte ( 41 seats) and the Center left  PVDA of Diederik Samson (39 seat)  will now be the face of the Dutch political environment for the years to come.  

This means it's back to the center for politics in Netherlands.  Yesterday the voters in the Netherlands backed two pro-European centrist parties in large numbers, while the Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant Freedom Party ( PVV) of right wing populist Geert Wilders ended up as the biggest loser of this election. His party dropping from 24 to 15 seats in Parliament. Also the Christian Democrats continued to loose support..

Diederik Samson of the PVDA

Diederik Samson, who has advocated spending on job-creation programs, indicated he would bargain hard in coalition talks.  "Nobody knows exactly what will happen tomorrow, but one thing is certain. The course can be changed. The course must be changed because the right-wing policies of the past two years cannot continue," he said.

Mr Samsom's approach has been broadly seen as a nod to the policies of France's recently elected Socialist President, Francois Hollande, who wants to increase spending and raise taxes on the rich.

Mr Rutte's policy echoes German Chancellor Angel Merkel's plans of strictly adhering to austerity measures that are designed to force down the country's deficit.

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