For Geert Wilders, the leader of Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV), years of patience paid off while the incumbent right-wing party gambled and lost in the country's recent elections, writes Alex De Jong.
Alex De Jong
The Dutch election in mid-March was a shift to the right. One of the great mistakes of the Dutch left in the period leading up to this election was that, while it was already at an all-time low in the polls, it did not prioritise its own narrative, writes Alex De Jong.
Exit polls have shown the Dutch Socialist Party will get 15 seats after the September 12 elections, the same number it had before.
When two weeks ago, with polls showing the SP stood to win about 35 seats, even The Economist felt the need to raise the alarm over SP-leader Emile Roemer's “far-left party”. With this fresh in the memory, that's a deep disappointment for Dutch leftists. But it shouldn't come as much of a surprise.