Geert Wilders' Anti-Islam Party Wins Dutch Elections

By Stefan J. Bos - Amsterdam

His supporters celebrate. With most votes counted, Geert Wilders is in pole position to become the Netherlands' next prime minister, with his Party for Freedom or PVV gaining 37 seats in the 150-seat Parliament. He is far ahead of his nearest conservative liberal and green-leftist rivals.

Concerns about the scale of immigration to the Netherlands, a small nation of 17.5 million people, are widely considered the main reason for his success. 

In his victory speech, Geert Wilders referred to this situation. "The people have spoken. They said: "We are sick and tired of this. We will make sure the Dutch people will be number one again. And the Dutchman now hopes that the people will get their country back. We make sure that the Netherlands is for the Dutch again."

Rights groups and several Muslim representatives have called his views racist. They remember his calls for banning the Koran, Mosques, and Islamic headscarves in government buildings. He was also convicted of hate speech after calling for fewer Moroccans in the Netherlands.

Yet Wilders claims these issues are not his top priority when his party becomes part of a coalition government.   "I think that people would not understand and not accept either that if the biggest winner of the elections would not have an important role in that coalition. And we have to compromise on many issues to ensure those votes are worth their money."       

But former European Union climate commissioner France Timmermans, now leading an alliance of the Dutch Greens and Social Democrats, has doubts. Timmermans warns he won't participate in a Wilders-led government. "We are democrats, democracy has spoken, now the hour has come to defend democracy," he says. I don't need to tell you this, but I am saying it to the professionals, the journalists present here. We will never join a coalition with a party that excludes Dutch people," he said prompting loud applause.  

Dissapointment for Yesilgöz

The outcome disappointed Dilan Yesilgöz, leader of the liberal-conservative VVD party.

She had hoped to replace VVD government leader Mark Rutte and to write history as the first woman prime minister and the first person with a migrant background to become the next prime minister.

It has been a long road for the charismatic 46-year-old born in Turkey.

She arrived in the Netherlands at the age of eight with her dissident parents fleeing persecution. "For us, the outcome was disappointing. I think politicians have big lessons to learn from this. We did not listen enough to the people, and we did not offer enough workable solutions," she told her supporters.

Now, difficult coalition talks will begin. It has often been that way in what is known as the Dutch Polder model.

But now, for the first time, longtime anti-Islam political veteran Geert Wilders has a chance to become the country's next leader.