Dutch PM in election duel with anti-Islam leader
Monday's debate, plus Tuesday's final night round-table with eight political party leaders, could yet sway Wednesday's vote.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will go head-to-head with his main rival Geert Wilders
Just two days before The Netherlands goes to the polls, tensions with Ankara have flared into a diplomatic crisis, forcing simmering concerns about immigration and integration back to the top of the political agenda.
Monday's debate, plus Tuesday's final night round-table with eight political party leaders, could yet sway Wednesday's vote, one analyst told AFP, estimating that some 60 percent of Dutch voters remain undecided.
While Wilders has delighted in the chaos which erupted over the weekend when Dutch riot police moved in to disperse hundreds of protestors waving Turkish flags in Rotterdam, Rutte has appealed for calm.
ADVERTISEMENT
The leader of the LiberalVVD party, Rutte is bidding for a third term, but faces a strong challenge from Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV).
Wednesday's vote "is about one question: in what kind of country do you want to live?" Rutte said in a Facebook post on Monday.
"I want a country where we live together in a normal way... a country that has shown the world that we do not fall for false populism."
He has angrily rejected Turkey's calls to apologise for expelling a Turkish minister who tried to attend a pro-Ankara rally in Rotterdam.
Instead, he urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to say sorry for likening the Dutch to Nazis -- a jibe that has cut deep in a country bombed and occupied in World War II.
ADVERTISEMENT
'Expel ambassador!'
While Rutte says he also wants to defuse the crisis with a fellow NATO member, Wilders urged the Dutch government to up the ante.
"Erdogan repeats we are Nazis + Fascists. He insults Dutch police. No de-escalation. Expel Turkish Ambassador to NL and entire staff!" Wilders said in a tweet Monday.
The stakes are high, with Rutte's Liberals (VVD) predicted to return as the largest party in the 150-seat parliament with between 23 to 27 seats, according to the latest aggregated polls.
That is well down from 40 VVD MPs in the outgoing lower chamber however, and would leave him scrambling to cobble together a viable coalition which may have to include four to five parties to reach the 76-seat majority.
ADVERTISEMENT
After weeks of flirting at the top of the polls, Wilders has seen his ratings slip and may now come second with between 19 and 23 seats, polls suggest.
"They are now at 13 percent of the Dutch vote, which is considerable but I think we should not exaggerate it: it is one out of eight,"Monika Sie Dhian Ho, director of the Clingendael Institute, told AFP.
If Wilders emerges as one of the largest parties in parliament, he may be a difficult voice to ignore even though other parties have vowed to snub him, turned off by his extreme rhetoric in a country which prides itself on its consensus politics.
'Here to stay '
Wilders has vowed to close mosques, ban sales of the Koran and bar Muslim immigrants. But his one-page manifesto is glaringly short on detail.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Dutch are "interested to hear how he's going to implement that since he's going against the constitution, against many laws that we have in the Netherlands," said Sie, highlighting how so far Wilders has snubbed the major debates.
The latest polls also suggest support for traditional Dutch establishment parties such as the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the Democracy Party D66 is rising as the vote looms.
Most Dutch voters remain preoccupied with issues such as the economy, pensions and health care for the greying population, even though the elections are being closely watched abroad amid the European debate about immigration and integration.
Wilders's "ideology might be negative, it's anti-Muslims, it's anti-EU, it's anti-immigration, it's anti-refugees. But it is a clear ideology that addresses concerns of a substantial group of the Dutch. So it is there to stay," said Sie.
These elections have also seen the remarkable rise of the left-wing ecologists GroenLinks and their charismatic young leader Jesse Klaver, who could yet become a kingmaker in a fragmented political landscape.
ADVERTISEMENT
"My weapons are hope and optimism," the 30-year-old Klaver told AFP Saturday after campaigning in southern Eindhoven.
"We are building a movement that is stronger than any parties in Netherlands."
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
ADVERTISEMENT
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: news@pulselive.co.ke