With other parties refusing to govern with the far-right leader, months of political deadlock may lie ahead
Dutch election: the key players and main issues
Voters in the Netherlands return to the polls on Wednesday less than two years after Geert Wilders led his party to a shock election win that the anti-immigration agitator could well repeat – but this time, with little chance of his party ending up in government.
Polls suggest that Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV) could again finish first in a vote triggered when he pulled it out of a fractious and ineffectual four-party rightwing coalition last June in a row over his 10-point plan for a radical crackdown on refugees.
But such was the anger sparked by the populist leader’s willingness to torpedo the government over demands widely judged either unworkable or illegal that all major political formations have since ruled out joining him in a new coalition.
