Netherlands election: Mark Rutte on course to win fourth term
Mark Rutte and his liberal Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) are on course for a comfortable victory in national elections in the Netherlands, almost certainly securing the outgoing prime minister a fourth consecutive term.
After a dull campaign fought during the pandemic and seen as a referendum on the governments performance during the crisis, early exit polls suggested the VVD had won 36 of the Dutch parliaments 150 seats, two more than in the previous election.
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The poll, by Ipsos for Dutch public broadcaster NOS, predicted the progressive, pro-European D66 party, a member of Ruttes outgoing coalition led by foreign minister Sigrid Kaag, finished second with 27 seats, up eight and the partys best-ever result.
The far-right, anti-Islam Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, meanwhile, lost three seats compared with the 2017 election, finishing third equal with another of Ruttes coalition partners, the Christian Democrats (CDA), on 14 seats.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/netherlands-election-mark-rutte-on-course-to-win-fourth-term
'Liberal' here means socially liberal, but economically keen on the free-market - the BBC puts it as:
This will be Mr Rutte's centre-right VVD party's fourth term, despite his government resigning in January over a child welfare fraud scandal.
The VVD is projected to win 36 out of 150 seats, while centre-left D66 is predicted to have 27 seats, and far-right PVV is expected to have 17.
The final results are due to be announced at 01:00 (00:00 GMT).
Meanwhile the centre-right Christian CDA is expected to win 14 seats, Labour (PvdA) nine seats, and green Groenlinks are projected to have eight seats.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56436297