Mark Rutte’s ‘right kind of populism’ - Main contents
‘Right kind of populism’: A combination of optimism and tough talk on immigration won the day. That’s how Prime Minister Mark Rutte described the Dutch election result — implying that there is a right kind, and that he deployed it to defeat Geert Wilders.
It wasn’t exactly a romp for Rutte, whose conservative-liberal VVD won 33 seats, down from 41 at the last election in 2012. But compared to the speculation a week earlier that he would be forced into second place by Wilders’ far-right Party of Freedom (PVV), it felt like a huge relief for the ruling party, and the rest of establishment Europe.
“There was an immediate response after Brexit happened. I think in our bones we felt this might not be good for us,” said Han ten Broeke, a member of parliament for Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
“Even before Brexit was triggered we saw that it meant havoc for the U.K. and we don’t want that. It is not in our interests, it is not to our advantage. I think many people who look at this say: we’re not going to experiment with that.”