Skip to main content

Home/ Geopolitics Weekly/ Group items tagged Geert Wilders

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Pedro Gonçalves

european-elections-the-netherlands-far-right | Politics | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ions-the-netherlands-far-right

EU Netherlands Geert Wilders European Parliament

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 05 Jun 09 - Cached
  • The Dutch anti-immigrant maverick, Geert Wilders, scored his biggest victory yesterday, seizing 15% and second place in European elections for the Netherlands, according to exit polls last night.
  • The bleached blond populist, barred from Britain and facing prosecution at home for hate speech, led his Freedom party to win four of the Netherlands' 25 seats in the European parliament at the first attempt, pushing the Labour party of the coalition government's finance minister, Wouter Bos, into third place.
  • Wilders wants the European parliament abolished, Bulgaria and Romania kicked out of the EU, the mass deportation of immigrants from the Netherlands, and a minimum say for Brussels over Dutch policy. The virulence of his anti-Islam and anti-immigrant activities saw him barred from entering Britain earlier this year, while the Dutch authorities are prosecuting him for inciting hatred.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Last night's estimate of 15% represented a big increase on the 6% he took in the last general election in 2006, despite fielding a list of unknowns for seats in the European parliament.
  • The Christian Democrats of prime ­minister Jan Peter Balkenende won the election, according to the television exit poll, but dropped 4 points and lost two seats. Its coalition partner, the Labour party, took 4 seats, like Wilders, but dropped 10 points and forfeited three seats.
  • Wilders will take further encouragement from a mock election staged among 15,000 pupils in 140 schools in the Netherlands this week which gave him more than 19% support, ahead of all other parties.
  • Turnout in the Netherlands was around 40%, similar to five years ago and half the level of the general election in 2006.
Pedro Gonçalves

Dutch politics fragmented as elections loom | Reuters - 0 views

uk.reuters.com/...ics-poll-idUKBRE83L02O20120422

Netherlands EU Economy Democracy Society

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 22 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • The poll also showed that a majority of those surveyed favour smaller budget cuts than those stipulated by the European Union, a further sign that the notoriously frugal Dutch are suffering from "bailout fatigue" and resent the high cost of rescuing profligate peripheral euro zone countries."Voters from different parties share the same view - disgust or disappointment over the political action and the political parties," De Hond said in a statement, adding that two thirds of those polled agreed with the statement "I'm tired of all the party politics".
  • Annual budget cuts of 14 to 16 billion euros are needed for the Netherlands to meet European Commission targets. Without them, its public deficit is forecast to hit 4.6 percent of GDP in 2013, well above the 3 percent agreed with the Commission.
  • If the Netherlands does not cut spending and breaks EU budget rules, it is likely to lose its coveted triple-A credit rating, leading to higher borrowing costs.The level of state debt rose to 65.2 percent of GDP at the end of 2011 from 62.9 percent in 2010, Statistics Netherlands said last month.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The catalyst for the crisis was Geert Wilders, whose anti-euro, anti-Islam Freedom Party had pledged to support the minority government in parliament and give it the majority to pass legislation.But after seven weeks of talks, Wilders suddenly backed out just when a deal appeared close.Wilders' supporters are against budget cuts, particularly cuts in welfare, health and unemployment benefits, and there was talk, which he denied, that the Freedom Party was split over the proposed cuts."We don't want to make our pensioners bleed for the sake of diktats from Brussels," Wilders told reporters on Saturday.
  • "This was a package that would damage our economy over coming years and increase unemployment. And all that to meet a demand made by Brussels, accepted by the Liberals, of reaching a 3 per cent deficit in 2013."
Pedro Gonçalves

FT.com / Europe - Liberals take narrow lead in Dutch election - 0 views

www.ft.com/...58-11df-b3f1-00144feabdc0.html

Netherlands

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 10 Jun 10 - Cached
  • The party that clocked up the biggest electoral gains, the Freedom party or PVV of Geert Wilders, the controversial anti-Islamic politician, could play a crucial role in those talks, which are expected to take several weeks. Mr Wilders, who wants to stop immigration from Muslim countries and repatriate immigrants who commit crimes, won 24 seats, up from nine in the last general election in 2006.
  • Mr Wilders, who last year made a proposal in parliament to tax all Muslim women €1,000 a year to wear a headscarf, hailed the result as a “glorious day for the Netherlands” and said he was serious about entering coalition talks with other parties. “We want to make the Netherlands better, safer and prouder,” he said.
Pedro Gonçalves

Misery for social democrats as voters take a turn to the right | Politics | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...eu-elections-social-democrats

EU European Parliament Germany France Poland Netherlands Hungary Hans-Gert Pottering

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 08 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Europe's mainstream centre-left parties suffered humiliation last night when four days of voting in the EU's biggest-ever election concluded with disastrous results for social democrats.
  • With the social democrats licking their wounds and the centre-right scoring ­victories whether in power or in opposition, the other signal trend of the ballot was the breakthroughs achieved by extreme right-wing nationalists and xenophobes.
  • In the EU's biggest country, Germany, returning 99 of the parliament's 736 seats, the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition, sunk to an all-time low, with 21% of the vote.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Less than four months before Germany's general election, last night's outcome augured well for Merkel's hopes of ditching her grand coalition in favour of a centre-right alliance with the small Free Democrats, who made the biggest gains, from six to more than 10%.
  • Next door in Austria, the chancellor and leader of the Social Democrats, Werner Faymann, led his party to its worst ever election result, just over 23%.In both countries, the Christian democrats won comfortably, but Merkel's Christian Democrats and her Bavarian CSU allies were six points down, on 38%.
  • France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, claimed triumph with 28% for his UMP party to the Socialists 17%, the first time a sitting French president has won a European election since the vote began 30 years ago.
  • In Italy, the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi also did well, despite his marital breakdown and scandals over parties at his Sardinian villa, while in Spain the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also lost the election to conservatives.
  • In Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, the centre right won the elections, with stunning defeats for the left in certain cases.
  • Following on from the triumph of Geert Wilders, the anti-Islam campaigner, who came second with 17% in the Netherlands on Thursday, the hard-right and neo­fascists chalked up further victories .
  • The anti-Gypsy extremists in Hungary, Jobbik, took three of the country's 22 seats; in Austria two far-right parties mustered 18%, and extreme Slovak nationalists gained their first seat in the European parliament.
  • Anti-Brussels candidates and Eurosceptics also won more seats in Denmark, Finland, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
  • With the jobless numbers soaring amid the worst economic crisis in the lifetimes of European voters, the centre left is clearly failing to benefit politically in circumstances that might be expected to boost its support.
  • Estimates of the new balance of power in the 736-seat assembly suggest that the centre right will have around 270 seats to the socialists' 160, a much wider margin than predicted.
  • Hans-Gert Pöttering, the outgoing president, or speaker, of the European parliament, stressed that Europeans "want" the parliament, but conceded that that desire would not be reflected in the turnout.
  • The damning popular verdict on that assertion, however, was the lowest turnout in 30 years. It was estimated at around 43%, compared with 45% last time, and 62% in Europe's first election in 1979.
1 - 4 of 4
Showing 20▼ items per page