Dutch election: Pro-Europe VVD and Labour parties win

Voters in the Netherlands have backed two pro-European centrist parties, while the anti-immigrant Geert Wilders’ Eurosceptic party took heavy losses.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte claimed victory for his liberal VVD party. Centre-left Labour came a close second.

Both parties performed better than predicted, seeking a pan-European solution to the eurozone crisis.

They have enough seats for a workable coalition – but would have to reconcile very different views on austerity.

With more than 96% of votes counted, the VVD looked set to take 41 seats in the 150-member lower house, two more than Labour.

Between them, the two parties could theoretically form a new coalition government but their leaders played down such a possibility during the campaign.

The result marked a return to the centre by Dutch voters, following recent elections which produced highly fragmented results and multi-party coalitions.

The Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, which is known for being fiercely anti-Islam, and campaigned on a Eurosceptic platform, looked on course to win 15 seats, well down on its previous 24.

The Socialist Party, which briefly led in opinion polls, came joint third with 15 seats, the same result as at the 2010 election.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt welcomed exit poll results, tweeting: “Looks as if populist anti-Europeans are losing big time in Dutch election. Distinctly good news.”

The provisional final result is expected later on Thursday while the official result will be confirmed on Monday.

Fight over policies

“We won our greatest victory in history,” Mr Rutte declared.

“This is a strong boost for the agenda that we have laid out for the Netherlands,” he said, promising to continue his policy of bringing down the Netherlands’ deficit and stimulating the economy by investing in infrastructure.

He said he would try to form a coalition as soon as possible, though formal talks cannot begin until next week.

Mr Samsom, who has advocated spending on job-creation programmes, indicated he would bargain hard in coalition talks.

“Nobody knows exactly what will happen tomorrow, but one thing is certain. The course can be changed. The course must be changed because the right-wing policies of the past two years cannot continue,” he said.

Mr Samsom’s approach has been broadly seen as a nod to the policies of France’s recently elected Socialist President, Francois Hollande, who wants to increase spending and raise taxes on the rich.

Mr Rutte’s policy echoes German Chancellor Angel Merkel’s plans of strictly adhering to austerity measures that are designed to force down the country’s deficit.

Analysts say the outcome will be significant for Germany’s campaign for fiscal discipline in the eurozone.

The election was called after the Freedom Party withdrew its support for Mr Rutte’s budget cuts six months ago.

Mr Wilders, best known outside the Netherlands for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, told his supporters on Wednesday night: “I would have rather stood here with good news, but the voter has spoken. We have lost badly.”