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The dam is breached. The “shock election victory” of Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) will reverberate through all of Europe. The Dutch people decided to cast their vote for the Right-wing firebrand — and massively so, at least considering the conditions of the country’s parliamentary system. With a notoriously high number of political parties participating in elections, 23% of votes going to the PVV still qualifies as a political earthquake.
It means that the party will more than double its numbers in parliament, most likely ending up with 37 seats out of 150. It also means, however, that the PVV still falls short of the 76 seats needed for Wilders to become prime minister. So, despite all the celebrations, it will probably be months of negotiations before a new government is sworn in, and whether his party will be part of it remains an open question.