by Oui
Thu May 23rd, 2019 at 07:51:17 PM EST
Complete surprise result in Dutch exit poll - LABOUR WINS - PvdA
>> See Update Dutch results below in posted comment. <<
The loss of three seats for PVV - Geert Wilders - go to new rightwing party Forum for Democracy - Thierry Baudet.
The last poll was completely off target – here.
More below the fold …
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
EU elections live updates: Polls close in the Netherlands
Polls have closed in the Netherlands, while in the UK votes can be cast until 10 pm local time (11 pm CEST).
Tories and Labour set for EU elections disaster as Brexit Party and Lib Dems top poll
The Conservatives and Labour will finish behind the Brexit Party and Liberal Democrats at the EU elections, according to an opinion poll carried out hours before voting began.
Ipsos MORI has predicted that Nigel Farage’s new outfit will storm ahead to pick up 35% of the vote today, while Vince Cable's pro-Remain party will take 20%.
Labour is to finish third on 15%, while the Tories languish in fifth, a point behind the Greens, on just 9%.
The study, carried out for the Evening Standard between 20-22 May, found that more than half (54%) of Conservative voters from the 2017 general election plan to ditch them for the Brexit Party.
[Update-1]
Of course illustrated with a Dutch windmill, wooden shoes and Hans Brinker to illuminate the American folks. Are the Dutch part of Germany was the question I heard quite often in the States …
Strong showing for pro-EU parties in Dutch EU vote | AP |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Pro-European Dutch parties were predicted Thursday to win most of the country’s seats in the European Parliament, with right-wing populist opponents of the European Union managing to take only four of the nation’s 26 seats.
In a surprise forecast, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans became the country’s biggest party in the 751-seat European Parliament, according to an Ipsos exit poll.
“What an unbelievable exit poll!” Labor leader Lodewijk Asscher told a gathering of cheering party faithful.
The poll was published by Dutch national broadcaster NOS after polling stations closed Thursday evening in Netherlands. Earlier in the day, Dutch and British voters kicked off the first of four days of voting for the European Parliament in all of the EU’s 28 nations.
Official results will only be announced after the last polling station in the EU closes late Sunday.
The Dutch Labor party was forecast to win five seats, while the pro-European center right VVD of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gained one seat to win a total of four seats.
“There is a clear majority of people in the Netherlands, if you count them altogether, who want the European Union to continue playing a role in tackling problems that need to be solved,” Timmermans told NOS, speaking from Spain.
Timmermans is a broadly respected former Dutch foreign minister who is trying to become the next president of the European Commission.
[…]
Wilders vowed to keep fighting the populist cause even after his party’s projected big defeat.
“We had hoped for more seats,” Wilders said in a statement. “But with one seat in the European Parliament we will, together with our European friends, fight even harder against the EU monster, Islam and mass-migration.”
○ In upset, Dutch Labour party trumps populists in European vote | Reuters |
Archive: Key words Terror and Islamophobia
[Update-2]
Percentage wise Dutch Labour party a solid winner with 5 seats out of 26.
Timmermans’ Labor wins Dutch EU election: Exit poll | Politici EU |
The Dutch Labor Party of Frans Timmermans, the center-left candidate for European Commission president, is the unexpected winner of the European Parliament election in the Netherlands, according to an exit poll.
The party won five out of 26 seats with more than 18 percent of the vote, doubling its result compared to the last European election in 2014.
That means that the Dutch social democrats will be a larger force on EU level than Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal party, which came second on 14 percent, and Thierry Baudet's upstart Euroskeptic Forum for Democracy (FvD), which came fourth on 11 percent.
Ahead of the election, the Social Democrats had been projected to come third with three seats, with Rutte's and Baudet's parties expected to win five seats each.
[…]
Rutte congratulated Timmermans' party. "The Labor Party has delivered an unbelievably good performance tonight," he said.
Of his own party's result, he said the VVD has made "considerable progress." He added: "It's a fine result, but of course one would have preferred to be the biggest party."
[..]
According to the exit poll, turnout was up: some 41.2 percent of eligible voters in the Netherlands cast a ballot, compared to 37.3 percent in 2014.
Recently opportunist PM Mark Rutte flirting with rightwing populist rhetoric …
○ Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says more EU is not the answer
So Mark … will you need to adjust your rhetoric once again. :)
END OF UPDATES