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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

The anti-Islam, euroskeptic radical Geert Wilders is projected to be the shock winner of the Dutch election.

In a dramatic result that will stun European politics, his Freedom Party (PVV) is set to win around 35 of the 150 seats in parliament — more than double the number it secured in the 2021 election, according to exit polls.

Frans Timmermans’ Labour-Green alliance is forecast to take second place, winning 25 seats — a big jump from its current 17. Dilan Yeşilgöz, outgoing premier Mark Rutte’s successor as head of the center-right VVD, suffered heavy losses and is on course to take 24 seats, 10 fewer than before, according to the updated exit poll by Ipsos for national broadcaster NOS.

A win for Wilders will put the Netherlands on track — potentially — for a dramatic shift in direction, after Rutte’s four consecutive centrist governments. The question now, though, is whether any other parties are willing to join Wilders to form a coalition. Despite emerging as the largest party, he will lack an overall majority in parliament.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 178 points 11 months ago

What the fuck is happening to the world?

[-] Lauchs@lemmy.world 144 points 11 months ago

Far right extremists claim easy solutions to complex problems. With housing etc pricea going through the roof it's easy to demonize foreigners etc.

Look what happened in Germany with hyper inflation.

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[-] tomatopathe@sh.itjust.works 74 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is the first generation with worse prospects than the previous one. Wealth inequality is growing, and robber barons are back. Climate change is making any prospects even worse.

Combine that with a communication revolution (social media, to be exact) which allows anyone to pretty much target anyone else with any message they feel like, means disinformation pushing narratives is everywhere. And not to forget, there people in charge of these platforms are among the aforementioned robber barons.

It's easy to offer simple solutions to these problems and push disinformation to people who don't have the knowledge, time or energy to debunk everything and think deeply about things, since they're busy slaving away to put food on their tables, struggling to build a future, and looking for solutions. And simple answers give people a sense of control or explanation over their difficult situation.

It's why I have completely removed myself from every social media platform there is, except this one and I'm only on here intermittently.

[-] fromagemangeur@mander.xyz 30 points 11 months ago

True, but the generation that tends to vote far right is the boomer generation - it's the generation that failed to pass on rising prosperity and gave us the climate crisis.

[-] JustTesting@lemmy.hogru.ch 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If you look at elections in europe, it's pretty consistently the 35-45 year old demographic that votes right the most. Every age group votes right and it's not like it's only boomers, with the exception of young voters <30 (and women) which do vote significantly more left

E. G. Netherlands https://www.statista.com/chart/8178/pvv-largest-party-but-not-among-youth/

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[-] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago

Good question. But honestly you just got to look at history for the answer. Far-right extremism often do better when it's hard times like we have right now.

[-] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

We are unfortunately in one of those moments in history where far right authoritarianism is troublingly in vogue.

[-] JeSuisUnHombre@lemm.ee 21 points 11 months ago

The right has a cohesive strategy for getting and keeping an animated base, while the libs are focusing on maintaining a status quo that people hate and are creating voter apathy.

[-] Ab_intra@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Just to be clear liberal doesn't really make that much sense in Europe as it dose in the US. Liberals are mostly on the right side of politics while in the US it's on the left. So if you where to talk with European people then they would talk about the left or the right. In my country for instance the only party that is truly liberal is all the way to the right. The left is socialists mostly and while the US have some socialists the democrats in the US is much more to the right than most Europe "left" would be.

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 10 points 11 months ago

Right, you do have some politicians in the US like Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Occasio-Cortes who would be considered Social Democrats in Europe. But yeah, US politics are really opaque due to the two-party system. There are a lot of politicians in the Democratic party who would be considered center-right market liberals in Europe.

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[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 16 points 11 months ago

Capitalism makes living harder, populist fascism fools voters, cycle repeats

[-] takeda@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Everyone thinks that Russia became hostile with war in Ukraine. They were already fighting war with the West for years and it is bringing fruits. It is the war of disinformation and unlike the traditional hot war, they are very good at it and it is now bringing fruits.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's going fascist.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago

Other parties haven't taken any called for measures when it comes to immigration, now far-right is reaping the benefits.

It's pretty shit but sorta expected if you just stubbornly avoid addressing the issues people have.

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[-] MudMan@kbin.social 9 points 11 months ago

Social media, mostly.

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[-] naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca 94 points 11 months ago

The slide towards far-right fascism continues...

[-] Darkblue@lemmy.world 53 points 11 months ago

Don't worry, the headline is too sensational. (Which is a pet peeve of mine anyway: headlines should be objective. I can make up my own mind please)

He didn't win a majority. He won't form a goverment. If he does, he will be powerless in the coalition. If he does get to make laws, they won't pass the senate (called "1ste kamer" in NL). And if he does, the government will fall anyway (which is a Dutch tradition anyway).

So a lot of 'outs' :)

No worries!

[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Only your last one seems valid. Dutch coalitions aren't very stable. The only stable factor of the last 12 years has recently left politics.

The question is indeed who is willing to form a coalition government. The most likely option is PVV (far right), VVD (neoliberal), and NSC (Christian democrats), of the latter can convince their voters they can accept the far right.

[-] Darkblue@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Not very stable indeed. Since 'Kok' (2002!), NL has had 1 cabinet come to full term (Rutte II I believe). In 21 years 8 goverments. 1 full term of 4 years, so 7 in 17 years. Elections every 2,5 years on average :/

But hey, at least NL is not Belgium :D

[-] Vrijgezelopkamers@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
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[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 90 points 11 months ago

Geert Wilder wins Dutch election

35 of the 150 seats in parliament

Let's please stop using FPTP language to describe very non-FPTP systems and outcomes.

[-] SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca 13 points 11 months ago

Agreed “win” is too simplistic. Still good shot at forming government though. I’m not familiar with the Dutch system, but, even in systems with proportional representation, the plurality winner usually gets first shot at forming government, and by convention usually does form government. They need 76 seats to govern and are more than halfway there with 37.

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[-] fne8w2ah@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Also the Dutch political system relies very heavily on coalitions and the "polder model" since no party can ever win a majority of seats in their House of Representatives.

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[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 63 points 11 months ago

He only got 25% of the vote and it's a consolidation of other right wing votes, so there is no right wing majority.

So it's not much different than earlier elections, but now it's concentrated in his party, making him the largest.

He will not be able to form a government without making concessions. And making concessions will lose him voters.

So yeah, interesting times, but I am not worried.

[-] deranger@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago

The headline seems much more sensational than the numbers lead me to believe.

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

In most countries "winning" the election implies having a majority.

In coalition countries like ours, it only means becoming the biggest party.

Hence why the headline might lead people to a wrong conclusion.

Practically speaking, it's more important which potential coalition has a majority. And the parties on the right don't have a clear majority, nor do the left parties.

So it will either be a center-right or center-left coalition.

Center-right will be attempted first, since we customarily let the largest party initiate, but it will be quite difficult since we have two chambers and different parties on the right are big in different chambers.

If he fails, center-left has a clear majority in both chambers with the same parties.

Edit: need to correct a mistake. Center-left also doesn't have a clear majority in both chambers. Two of the big parties in this election have very few seats in the other chamber.

But not a problem, we often have coalitions that don't have a majority in the Senate. Our House (this election) is more decisive and the Senate more facilitating.

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[-] blazera@kbin.social 48 points 11 months ago

I guess netherlands was like, "you know, things have been going too well here"

[-] johan@feddit.nl 62 points 11 months ago

Things have been going shit here actually, and blaming minorities for a country's problems is still a surefire way to win votes. As a dutch person I'm sad, embarrassed, and scared.

[-] Darkblue@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

"Going to shit", really?

NL is one of the best countries in the world. Yes we have some challenges, e.g. stikstof or crappy goverment (e.g.toeslagenaffaire), but common, don't be soo fatalistic.

And yes, live is getting very expensive. Which is the result of the late-game capitalistic piramid scheme we live in. That sucks, sure. But that is not solvable any time soon. Especially not by NL :D

[-] johan@feddit.nl 16 points 11 months ago
  • the government doesn't take climate change seriously
  • it is basically impossible for a large group of people (including me) to ever buy a home
  • any sort of nature here is dead and over half the country doesn't seem to care
  • inequality has been growing for decades
  • the country is incredibly polarized
  • after over a decade of neo liberal VVD policy, the majority of people apparently yearn for even more right wing policy
  • Ajax are 12th in the eredivisie

Or course I'm being a bit dramatic but considering how things were I do think the Netherlands is going to shit a little bit. Of course it's a better place to live than many other places, but in my opinion it's definitely getting worse.

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[-] TheIvoryTower@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago

People need to understand that in a democracy, winning the plurality of the votes is not the same as winning the election. If no-one will work with him, he will not be in government.

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[-] Resol@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago

If you're gonna ban Islam, at least ban every other religion at the same time so you don't look like a racist.

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[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Not elect fascists worldwide (challenge impossible )

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[-] ThatFembyWho@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 11 months ago

Wilders wants to ban mosques

That's cool, as long as we ban churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and temples at the same time.

I really didnt know this guy was still around, he hasn't been making the world headlines so much in recent years.

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[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

Why do they all have weird fucking hair?

[-] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

At this point, it's not even weird. I'm just glad they aren't tarnishing any look I would miss. I mean, in an alternate universe, I could see myself rocking a Chaplin moustache. But they can have the thinning, wiry, bizarrely-styled blond look all to themselves.

[-] frazw@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago

"Politics of me" beats "politics of we" once again.

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 17 points 11 months ago

More like "politics of being to dumb to see further than the tip of if my own nose".

[-] MuuuaadDib@lemm.ee 22 points 11 months ago

Aww....the rest of the world is going through their own Trump phase now.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Shit's contagious, like covid

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[-] Fades@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

the world is falling to fascism. Fuck this goddamn planet just smite us already jesus fucking christ

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[-] FishFace@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago
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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
308 points (95.6% liked)

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