No one (seriously) thought he was going to get a majority. He still gained seats - Edit 1
Before modification by Cannoli at 16/03/2017 10:25:03 AM
So after all the agonizing the past weeks and months - in Europe, anyway, though I dare say all the angst about Trump, right-wing populism and the 'alt right' must have gained more than usual attention in the US for European elections as well - the result in the first of these dreaded 2017 elections is pretty anticlimactic. Geert Wilders is now expected to have eighteen hapless lackeys joining him in parliament, moving from fifteen seats to nineteen - nice, until you realize he was over thirty in the polls a month or so ago.
Yes, because if there is ONE THING we learned in 2016 its the accuracy of polls.
And that he'd need 76 for a majority. Not a good night for Bannon or Breitbart, I dare say, and a good sign for the much more consequential French election coming up in April.
And I daresay this is why they were ginning up so much hysteria over Wilders - they knew this guy they portrayed as the Dutch version of the anti-Christ was going to gain, that his ideas are not losing or fading, so they make astronomically cataclysmic predictions to make the actual loss seem less significant in comparison.
On the other hand, it doesn't matter all that much whether Wilders has 19 seats or 30, and the VVD's (mainstream right-wing party) unexpectedly large lead is mostly due to the nasty spat with Turkey of the past week, in which both the Netherlands and Turkey had everything to gain from grandstanding towards each other, in which the VVD could reap the electoral benefit thanks to having the Prime Minister. If this incident has lost Wilders a few seats today but causes Erdogan to eke out a win in his referendum to (essentially) abolish Turkish democracy next month, that will be far too high a price to pay.
Oh, so there IS a Muslim you people don't like! Good to know.
Dutch PM Rutte beats off far right but loses seats
Wow, I pretty much assumed the stuff about the Netherlands being perverts was wild (pardon the pun) exaggeration, but if this is how they conduct politics, I must be wrong. Just tapping a foot in a bathroom stall ends political careers in America, but getting to third base is a happy headline in the Netherlands. Which also sounds like a pun, come to think of it,