Prior to the elections, there were four deputies of Turkish origin in the directly elected house of representatives and one in the senate, whose members are indirectly chosen by provincial city councils.The five elected Turkish-Dutch politicians are Nebahat Albaryak and Metin Çelik (Labor Party), Coşkun Çörüz (Christian Democrats), Fatma Koşer Kaya (Democrats 66) and Saadet Karabulut (Socialist Party). All of these politicians were already in parliament, except for Çelik, who was elected for the first time. Whether the other six Turkish-Dutch candidates were elected will become clear after the residual seats are assigned.
The election ousted Christian Democrat Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende after eight years in office, and Geert Wilders’s anti-immigration and anti-Muslim Freedom Party nearly doubled its seats to become the third-largest parliamentary group and a possible kingmaker.
With 98 percent of the vote counted, the rightist-leaning Liberals had 20.4 percent of total votes, or 31 seats in the 150-member parliament, against 19.6 percent or 30 for the Labour Party, which wants slower and fewer cuts to tackle a deficit expected to reach 6.6 percent of GDP this year.
This would give Liberal leader Mark Rutte a mandate to form a coalition and become prime minister, but sticking to his austerity policies could prove tough because he needs at least three other parties to secure a parliamentary majority. Earlier, exit polls had showed the Liberals and Labour running neck-and-neck in an election dominated by debate on fiscal austerity after the euro zone’s stability was threatened by sovereign debt woes plaguing Greece. Balkenende conceded defeat for his Christian Democrats when voters turned against the party, nearly halving its seats from 41 to 21. He resigned as party leader.
Wednesday’s election was triggered when his Christian Democrat-Labour coalition government collapsed in a row over extending the deployment of Dutch troops in Afghanistan. Wilders and his Freedom Party gained 10 seats to come third behind the Liberals and Labour with 21, reflecting concern in the country about immigration and foreign policy.
“More security, less crime, less immigration, less Islam -- that is what the Netherlands has chosen,” Wilders said.
