Geert Wilders visits Belgium with “friends” of Vlaams Belang

Geert Wilders visits Belgium with “friends” of Vlaams Belang

Geert Wilders attended a meeting of the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang in Aalst on Saturday morning. Partly due to the presence of the Freedom Party leader, there were about a hundred security guards on duty. This is what the Belgian newspaper wrote, among others latest news.

Wilders expressed his support for Vlaams Belang in Aalst. In X he talked about visiting his “friends”. “Parties in the Netherlands have also declared for years that they will never govern with the Freedom Party,” he said in a speech. But under pressure from voters, and under pressure from a good election result, that eventually changed.

In Belgium, not only the European elections, but also the national and regional elections will be held on Sunday. Other parties have previously ruled out cooperation with Vlaams Belang.

Europeans head to the polls: Italy, Latvia and Slovakia are among the countries that will participate on Saturday

With voting already taking place in the Netherlands on Thursday, with final results expected on Sunday evening, citizens of a number of other EU member states can cast their votes in the European elections on Saturday. Since Saturday morning, Italians, Latvians and Slovaks have been able to vote. Elections in the Czech Republic and Estonia, where voting was previously possible, will continue on Saturday.

In Slovakia, elections are being held in light of the failed assassination attempt against Prime Minister Robert Fico last month. His right-wing populist party, Smir, wants to persuade Slovak voters, among other things, to be strongly skeptical of EU support for Ukraine. But Fico's party also hopes to keep pro-European rival and opposition party Progressive Slovakia at bay by rolling back LGBTQ+ rights and traditional right-wing rhetoric on immigration and climate change.

In Italy, analysts expect big gains – up to a quarter of the vote, according to opinion polls – for the Fratelli d'Italia party. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right party could significantly expand the seven seats it won in 2019. These gains may come at the expense of Meloni's national coalition partners, former Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's populist right-wing League party, and Forza Italia, which It is led by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

Polls close in Slovakia, Malta, Latvia and the Czech Republic on Saturday evening. Italian and Estonian voters also have the opportunity to cast their ballots on Sunday. In many EU countries, voting can only take place on Sunday. For all countries – including the Netherlands – you will have to wait until Sunday evening, when the results will be announced at 11pm.

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A large number of PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB voters did not vote in the European elections

Many Dutch people who voted for the Party for Freedom, the VVD, the NSC or the BBB in the national elections on November 22 did not vote in the European elections on Thursday. This is evidenced by a voter poll conducted by Ipsos I&O on behalf of NOS. In particular, many NSC voters did not go to the polls in the European elections.

59 percent of National Security Council voters did not cast their ballots on Thursday. Only 13% of people who voted for the party in the November election did so again at the European level. Other parties that are part of the planned coalition also saw low turnout on Thursday: 56 percent of Freedom Party voters from last November did not cast a ballot on Thursday.

Turnout was relatively high in the European elections, according to the NOS voter poll. Nearly 47% of voters in the Netherlands cast their ballots. In the previous election in 2019, this percentage was slightly less than 42 percent. The lowest percentages of Christian Union and GroenLinks-PvdA voters stayed home: 10 and 22%.

Consultation referendums: Amsterdam doesn't want 'green cheating', Alkmaar doesn't want fireworks, Katwijk doesn't want parking regulations

It is possible to vote on an advisory referendum in three municipalities on Thursday. The provisional results have now been received.

About sixty percent of Amsterdam residents believe that the city's green spaces deserve better protection and, according to a preliminary result, voted against the municipality's plans for a so-called major green structure. It explains how Amsterdam builds homes and at the same time keeps the city green. Opponents say that because of all kinds of exceptions, the city will not become greener with the new plans. They point to all the green roofs, green facades, artificial turf fields and courtyards and call it “cheesy green” which is of no use to you as a resident.

Alkmaar supports banning fireworks by a two-thirds majority, according to preliminary statistics. In Katvik, residents voted overwhelmingly against the municipality's plan to introduce parking regulations for new homes. This means that a parking permit is not granted for newly built homes, or for only one car. “The municipality then believes that only people without cars will live there, while this is of course very naive,” the initiators of the referendum say on their website. “Katwijk is not a city like Amsterdam or Rotterdam where there is an extensive network of public transport (OV).”

All three referendums are not binding, but serve as advice to municipal councils.

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Foreign media write about the Dutch result as a “benchmark”

Politico writes that a poll of Dutch voters on Thursday evening is a gauge of what we can expect from the European elections in the countries that head to the polls in the coming days. The focus of the reports is on the gains made by Wilders' Party for Freedom, although his party is expected to trail GroenLinks-PvdA by one seat. “The far-right Wilders made significant gains in the Netherlands, but was narrowly defeated.”

The BBC writes that opinion polls prove how “polarized” Dutch society has become. “With a pro-European climate change party leading the way, followed closely by Mr Wilders, who wants less Europe and promises a government with the toughest asylum policy ever.” Although a shift to the right is expected in these European elections, including in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy, “their opponents are likely to take some satisfaction from polling voters as they exit the polls in the Netherlands on Thursday evening, due to the performance of the Groene Links party.” -BVDA.

German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) also put GroenLinks-PvdA's profit forecast first: “The red-green alliance of the Social Democrats and Greens is ahead of the right-wing populist Geert Wilders' party.”

Welcome to this blog

On Thursday, the Netherlands was the first country among the 27 member states of the European Union to go to the polls, to obtain 31 seats in the European Parliament. Most member states vote on Saturday and Sunday. Read our previous blog here.