EU SHOCK WAVES: Eurosceptic Geert Wilders famed for calling for Nexit WINS Dutch election
Geert Wilders, leader of Freedom Party, is set to win
Getty
Politicians in the EU have woken up to their worst nightmare this morning after a shock election outcome in the Netherlands.
The anti-EU, anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) has won the Dutch general election.
After 25 years in Dutch politics without holding office, Geert Wilders' party has won 37 of the 150 seats in parliament, more than double the number the party won in the 2021 election.
He will now today start looking for coalition partners to help in form a government.
Dutch far-right politician and leader of the PVV party, Geert Wilders speaks as he reacts to the exit poll
Reuters
A coalition of the Freedom Party, VVD, and the NSC party of centrist lawmaker Pieter Omtzigt would have 81 seats combined, making it the most obvious combination but which could still take months of difficult talks.
"I am confident we can reach an agreement," Wilders said in his victory speech late on Wednesday. "We want to govern and ... we will govern."
Earlier in the night he said: "We will have to find ways to live up to the hopes of our voters, to put the Dutch back as number one.
He added: "The Netherlands will be returned to the Dutch, the asylum tsunami and migration will be curbed."
The party of outgoing conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte finished a distant in third place.
Wilders has been called the "Dutch Trump" for his blonde hair and radical speech.
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His anti-Islam, anti-immigrant and anti-EU message seemed to have swept him into first place in the 2023 Dutch parliamentary elections.
The party have proposed to ban mosques and the Quran, and forbid Islamic headscarves in government buildings.
He is also a hard-line euro-sceptic, who is keen to leave the EU in a Brexit-style fashion.
None of the parties he could form a government with share his anti-EU ideas.
The PVV have promised an EU referendum, dubbed "Nexit".
If they win, the PVV have promised an EU referendum, dubbed "Nexit"
Reuters
Wilders said after polls closed last night: "The voters have spoken tonight and they have said that they are fed up."
"We are going to make sure that Dutch voters will be put first again."
He said that his party wants to curb the "asylum tsunami".
In a video uploaded to social media, he said: "We will have to find ways to live up to the hopes of our voters, to put the Dutch back on number one.
He called for other parties to work with him: "Now is the time for parties to look for agreements, we can't be ignored."