Geert Wilders’ Far-Right Gains Shake Up EU Parliament Elections

Final exit polls in the Netherlands indicate that Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) has made significant gains, competing closely with a center-left alliance in the European Parliament elections.

According to the final exit poll conducted by Ipsos I&O, the GreenLeft-Labour alliance is projected to secure eight seats in parliament, while Wilders’ PVV is expected to claim seven seats—an impressive increase of six seats compared to the 2019 elections.

The PVV's success is seen as a potential harbinger of broader electoral gains for the hard-right across the European Union.

Opinions on Wilders and his right-wing agenda were divided at polling stations. Darpan van Kuik, a voter, remarked, "These elections showed that people are fed up with the system at the moment, so things must change, but I don't think the vision of Mr. Wilders is the right vision."

Conversely, Sradhanand Sital expressed support, saying, "At this moment, for me, the best option is to support him (Wilders). See, he is also bound by the national constitution; he cannot do more than that."

Wilders himself celebrated on X, describing his PVV party as "the biggest winner."

The PVV had already caused a stir across Europe six months prior by becoming the largest party in the Dutch national parliament. Wilders now aims to capitalize on this popularity to influence the broader EU, advocating for a shift of power from Brussels back to national capitals, granting member states more control over issues like migration.

Wilders, like many hard-right leaders across Europe, seeks greater influence in the European Parliament to potentially weaken EU institutions from within. Although he previously called for the Netherlands to leave the EU, similar to Brexit, his party’s current manifesto focuses on reforming the EU from within.

"You need to have a strong presence in the European Parliament to ensure we can change European guidelines and be in charge of our own immigration and asylum policies," Wilders stated after voting in The Hague.

This approach aims to send a powerful message to the European Union and form a larger hard-right group within the European Parliament. Wilders envisions an alliance of hard-right parties to disrupt the traditional coalition of Christian Democrats, Socialists, pro-business Liberals, and Greens.

"Making a larger group in the European Parliament gives us the power to change European regulations and be more in control ourselves, here in the national parliaments," Wilders explained.

Wilders, alongside Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French opposition leader Marine Le Pen, stands in stark contrast to leftist and centrist parties, which advocate for a united European approach on issues like climate change and defense, arguing that individual nations alone have limited influence on the global stage.

"It is important that the European Union is a strong and reliable partner," said Gerard Kroon, a 66-year-old who works for the Hague municipality and voted for the pro-Europe party Volt. "We have to achieve things together, not only in Europe but also in the Netherlands."

Since the last EU election in 2019, populist, far-right, and extremist parties have led governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to be gaining public support across the continent.

Hacking Attack on Election Day:

Meanwhile, a pro-Kremlin hacker group claimed responsibility for what appeared to be a coordinated attack on the websites of Dutch political parties and EU institutions on the first day of the European elections.

At least three Dutch political parties—the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), the Party for Freedom (PVV), and the Forum for Democracy (FvD)—reported their websites were targeted by cyber-attacks on Thursday.

The centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal party announced that its website was "temporarily less accessible" due to a distributed denial-of-service attack on Thursday. "On election day, we consider this an attack on free, democratic elections," the party posted on X.

National broadcaster NOS reported that the sites of Wilders' PVV party and the far-right Forum for Democracy were also briefly down.

The Netherlands is electing 31 of the 720 members of the European Parliament for five-year terms. Final results for the entire EU will be announced in Brussels after polls close Sunday night.