By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, March 23 (KUNA) -- European leaders have welcomed the result of the Netherlands' elections held last week and expressed relief that the extreme-right and anti Islam Freedom Party of Geert Wilders failed to become the largest in the parliament.
French President Francois Hollande hailed the vote as a "clear victory against extremism", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was a "good day for democracy." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker noted that the Dutch voted for "free and tolerant societies in a prosperous Europe".
Belgian daily La Libre Belgique wrote in delight that "our neighbours have said no to such excesses, no to hatred, no to oversimplified answers and to a future without prospects, such a lesson in democracy warms the heart." Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Party for Freedom and Democracy, won 33 seats in the 150-member parliament, but 8 less than the last elections in 2012.
On the other hand, Wilders' party actually gained seats, winning 20, an increase of 5 from 2012 . For some commentators and analysts this European euphoria is not justified, as an estimated 1.5 million people or about 13% of the voters backed Wilders hate policies calling for a ban of the Holy Quran , a closure of mosques and an expulsion of migrants from Muslim countries.
Meanwhile, Dutch columnist Nausicaa Merbe rightly warned that forgetting Wilders' voters out of a sense of relief would be a fatal mistake.
"Europe's applause for the Netherlands can also be seen as a sign of naivety because populism is far from beaten in Europe," she wrote in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
French newspaper La Croix commented that "Geert Wilders is not wrong when he says: 'Whatever the outcome of the election today, the genie will not go back in the bottle.' "His ideas have become part and parcel of public debate, where they occupy an important place, consequently, it would be wrong to breathe a sigh of relief and go back to business as usual," commented the paper. For the Italian-language newspaper published in the Switzerland, Corriere del Ticino, the danger posed by right-wing populism in Europe has by no means been banished: "The extent to which Dutch politics has been 'Wilderised' must not be underestimated, as Wilders' far right party could continue to cast its spell on voters of a new country that is no longer the country of tolerance we once knew," it commented.
Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman pointed out that Wilders is the most influential politician of the past 15 years in the Netherlands.
After the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump's election as the US President, there is widespread fear over the surge of extreme-right and anti-Islam parties, dubbed, "populist parties" in Europe. After the Netherlands, the attention is now focused on France and how the extreme-right party of Marine Le Pen performs in the presidential elections. (end) nk.nam