FRIDAY, 7
JUNE 2024 - 00:12
Timmermans & Wilders pleased with EU election
results; NSC lost voters over PVV deal
Frans
Timmermans, the leader of left wing political party GroenLinks-PvdA, said he
was happy with the eight seats that his merged party appears to have won in the
European Parliament elections. Geert Wilders said he was "extremely
happy" with the outcome, with Ipsos I&O/NOS exit polling showing his
far-right PVV earned seven seats. Meanwhile, the NSC was left wondering why its
support has been decimated since the Dutch General Election in November, with
party leader Peter Omtzigt wondering if his coalition with the PVV is the
reason.
The
GroenLinks-PvdA party was projected to be the largest Dutch party in Brussels,
even though it will likely lose one of its nine seats. Yet Timmermans, the
green social democrat, was deliriously happy on Thursday evening. “We can get
started with this.” He hopes to bring solidarity to a safer Europe, and wants
to "ensure that there is a Green Deal 2.0."
Although he
also congratulated the PVV, Timmermans is also very happy with other
pro-European parties that scored well according to the exit poll. He also said
he appreciated those voters who went to the polls in the Netherlands, even
though fewer than half of eligible voters showed up. Still, the projected 47
percent turnout was the highest in an EU election in the Netherlands since
1989.
"Highest
turnout since the fall of the wall. Great result. Europe is alive,"
Timmermans shouted to his party members gathered in TivoliVredenburg in
Utrecht. "If you add up all the seats of the pro-European parties, we say
to the rest of Europe that has yet to vote, "It is not at all a foregone
conclusion that the radical right will win these elections," Timmermans
said.
"Look
what the Netherlands is doing, do the same." His words received deafening
applause from the packed hall, which had previously responded frantically to
the outcome of the exit poll.
"In
Europe, the story so far is that the radical right and extreme right are on the
rise. The Netherlands shows that progressive Europe can have an answer and that
we stand for solidarity, a social, green and strong Europe," said the
party's European faction leader, Bas Eickhout. "We showed today: we can do
it. We stand for the alternative that the Netherlands is longing for."
PVV leader
Geert Wilders was "extremely happy" that his party was just one seat
shy of GroenLinks-PvdA. But Wilders hopes that his party will still come out on
top when the votes are counted and the preliminary official results are
released on Sunday. He called it "a gigantic victory".
The results
will be released on Sunday evening based on the votes counted in
municipalities. For now, Wilders called the seven-seat victory
"unprecedented." He said, "I don't think parties have achieved
this much before," referring to the increase from just one seat. In fact,
the party lost four of its seats in the 2019 election, but gained back one
after the distribution of British seats as a result of Brexit. That MEP then
jumped over to Forum voor Democratie.
Still, the
fact that GroenLinks-PvdA was projected higher showed that the PVV may no
longer be the most popular party in the Netherlands, a title earned after the
November Dutch Parliament election. "A better result is of course always
possible, but I actually did not expect it," Wilders said.
The fact
that NSC will collaborate with the PVV in a new Cabinet "may also be a
reason" why far fewer people voted for NSC in the European elections than
in the Parliamentary elections in November, said NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt
after the exit polling data was published. His party secured one of the 31
seats allocated to the Netherlands.
Mathematically,
it means NSC has now lost two-thirds of its voters. "We are going to speak
to the voters," Omtzigt said about his party's results. His party has
agreed to form a coalition government with the PVV, VVD and BBB.
Further,
the obscurity of NSC's European party leader, Dirk Gotink, may have played a
role in the disappointing results. "When I participated in November, we
were new as a party, but as a Member of Parliament I was not new at all."
Before Omtzigt founded NSC at the end of last summer, he was briefly an
independent Member of Parliament after breaking with the CDA where he had been
one of the party's MPs for many years.
"We
have not yet been able to show what we can do in Brussels. So it is very normal
that you do not get a very big score the first time." Omtzigt is
especially proud of what his new party has achieved in a short time. In the
parliamentary elections, NSC became the third largest party with 20 seats in
the lower house of Parliament putting them in a position to join the next
Cabinet.
Still,
Gotink tried to put a positive spin on the night. With one of 720 European
Parliament seats, his party has "a good foot in the door," he said.
He was a former policy advisor and spokesperson for Manfred Weber, the leader
of the European People's Party (EPP).
In Europe,
NSC wants to join the Christian Democratic EPP faction. That is now by far the
largest group in the European Parliament. The CDA is part of that. BBB also
wants to join in.
BBB leader
Caroline van der Plas said she was delighted that her party appeared to have
won two seats in the new European Parliament. She said this result is partly
due to BBB's participation in the new governing coalition and to its
"climate realism."
The exit
poll was more favorable for the party than recent public opinion polls. BBB is
participating in the European elections for the first time and the results
"were emotional. One seat, we had confidence in that." However the
second seat came from "out of nowhere!" She said the election night
party was "a madhouse."
After the
announcement of the first exit poll, there were loud cheers. Many BBB members
told an ANP reporter on site that they expected to win a seat. Two seats is a
big win for them. Later in the evening, the crowd chanted, "Two, two,
three!" Many attendees were optimistic about winning an additional seat in
the final results, which will be announced on Sunday evening.
The two
MEPs that BBB seems to be able to delegate are "hugely important",
Van der Plas thinks. "Because in Brussels, everything is decided
there." BBB intends to make important adjustments to European climate and
agricultural policy.
European
Party leader Sander Smit will "bring a course correction" in
Brussels, he said. He was not impressed by the results from GroenLinks-PvdA,
which seems to be the largest. “If you put all the right-wing parties together,
they are the largest.” According to the current exit poll, Smit will enter the
European Parliament together with party number two, Jessika van Leeuwen.
"Of
course, we had hoped for more, but we can be quite happy with the result,"
said the VVD's European party leader, Malik Azmani, after a disappointing exit
poll for the party. The right wing faction was projected to drop from five to
four seats. During the results evening in Rotterdam's Hotel nhow, Azmani told
the members present that they can be "quite proud," because the VVD
appears to be becoming the third largest Dutch party in the European
Parliament.
The party
leader responded negatively to the question whether voters punished the VVD
because the party will collaborate in the Netherlands with the far right PVV,
he told NOS.
In its
European political group, Renew, the VVD faced enormous criticism for its
cooperation with Geert Wilders' party. Group leader Valérie Hayer recently
spoke out about this in sharp terms, and even threatened to expel the VVD from
Renew. These comments have cost the VVD seats, speculated current MEP Bart
Groothuis, who held the second spot on the VVD's list.
"Her
comments did not do the VVD any good," said Groothuis. "Those
comments were fully disproportionate, she should not have done that," he
said. "She has gone beyond her limits. We are going to have a serious
discussion about that." According to Groothuis, there was no chance of the
VVD leaving Renew.
VVD
Infrastructure Minister Mark Harbers said it was "a realistic result"
and "a reflection of national politics." Harbers stated, "Four
seats is a good basis, so you can really do work in the European Parliament.
With fewer seats this becomes more difficult."
Party
leader Dilan Yeşilgöz did not give a speech after the election, her party's
second poor result with her at the helm. She left the party meeting early
because the party thought it would be more appropriate for Azmani to give a
speech during the European elections, her spokesperson said.
"Thank
you for your vote! We have a very nice evening in Rotterdam and we will work
hard for you again tomorrow morning! Everywhere in the Netherlands and in
Europe!" she wrote on X.
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