Dutch far right makes gains as EU probes results release

A PARTY led by far right, anti-Islamist and anti-EU member of the Dutch parliament Geert Wilders has taken four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European Parliament election.

In Britain, the far right British National Party was also forecast to pick up their first seats in the parliament, judging by their polling in the local elections.

These early indications are fuelling fears of a low turnout resulting in an increase in anti-EU, far right anti-immigrant parties winning seats.

The Dutch government is being asked to explain why they broke the rules and released their European election results early, before the other member states had finished voting.

Turnout was low at just 36%, down from the 40% in the 2004 election. Mr Wilders’s Freedom Party got the second highest number of votes, about 15%, just behind the main government party, the Christian Democrats.

Banned from Britain as a threat to public security because of his views on Islam, and facing trial for hate crimes in the Netherlands, Mr Wilders’ party has the second largest number of MEPs of the eight Dutch parties.

Mr Wilders, who created outrage with his anti-Islamic film Fitna in 2008, said the government coalition of three parties should now step down and he called for a general election. The coalition lost 6 of their 16 MEPs. He will not take a seat in the European Parliament, preferring to remain in the Dutch parliament.

Two pro-EU parties, the social liberal group D66 and the Green Left increased their seats from one to three and from two to three seats respectively. First results were announced shortly after the polls closed in the Netherlands on Thursday and more yesterday morning as counting came to an end.

The European Commission has asked the Dutch for an explanation as results are not to be released until all voting has ended.