Populism sidelined

Dutch voters seem to have come to their senses by not letting Geert Wilders‘ populist PVV party even come close to the winner of yesterday’s elections. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD emerged the clear winner and long before the final results it was clear that he will continue as the country’s leader.

The most likely coalition for the next government is a combination of the VVD with the CDA, D66 and the PvdA. As things stood last night at press time, this combination will hold 80 seats in Parliament – a comfortable majority for Dutch standards.

Whatever that new coalition will look like, the best news is that the voters have sidelined populist powers for the time being, even though the PVV won a couple of seats; reason enough for Wilders to tweet to Rutte that he was not done with him yet, thereby showing that he has all the hallmarks of a bad loser.