REVIEW - Dutch EU Elections: Major Gain For Timmermans' Party Proves European Project Still Alive

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2019) The European Parliament elections in the Netherlands, contrary to the polls, have resulted in a considerable gain for the Labour Party (PvdA), represented by EU Commission presidential hopeful Frans Timmermans, on the one side, and losses of the nationalist Party for Freedom (PVV), on the other.

On Thursday, the Dutch went to the polls to determine whom the country will send to the European Parliament. The official results are to be announced on Sunday evening, when the whole of the European Union will have voted, but exit polls have already offered a picture of the outcome.

The main surprise is that the Labour Party came first in the elections. According to the Ipsos exit poll, it is expected to get five of the 26 Dutch seats in the EU legislature after receiving 18.1 percent of the vote. Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and his coalition partner, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), are tied in the second place. Each is projected to claim four seats.

The new right-wing Forum for Democracy party, which was predicted to be competing for the first place with Rutte's Liberals, has to settle for three seats.

The PVV party of Geert Wilders is apparently facing a serious defeat, losing three of the four seats in the European Parliament.

The right-wing parties, however, have not suffered a general loss, since there is a "transfer" of votes to the new party of young Thierry Baudet, the Forum for Democracy. Wilders, in turn, seems to be perceived as too much opposed to islam, while Baudet is more consensual, albeit also tough on uncontrolled immigration.

Actually, the PVV risks being completely overwhelmed by the Forum for Democracy, which is campaigning on an almost identical program. After half of the PVV voters switched during the provincial elections, this is now done to an even greater extent. Only 4 percent of voters chose the PVV. In 2014, it was more than 13 percent.

The social liberal Democrats 66, meanwhile, also fail to convince the electorate and have from four to two seats. The Socialist Party, which campaigned remarkably hard against the Labour Party's Timmermans, loses a seat and has only one left.

The pro-pensioner 50Plus list has obtained a seat, while five years ago it fell short of doing so. The Party for the Animals, on the contrary, loses its sole seat. According to the Dutch NOS broadcaster, the margin of error in this exit poll is one seat.

UNEXPECTED WIN FOR PVDA AND EXPECTED RISE FOR THE FORUM

For the PvdA the result � a gain of two seats � means a rather unexpected windfall in the hitherto difficult struggle to recover from the total collapse in the 2017 general election. Although there has been a slight recovery in the polls in recent months, the upward trend only appeared when its member and European Spitzenkandidat Timmermans started intensively campaigning over the last few weeks.

He, in particular, believes that "there is a majority in the Netherlands" that wants the European Union to play a more active role in climate change fight, social policy and taxing large companies.

Before his departure for Brussels to serve as European Commission vice president, Timmermans was actually the most popular minister of the previous cabinet for a long time and still appears to be able to win votes for his party.

Although the Forum for Democracy leader, Baudet, in contrast, might have hoped for a better score, the rise from scratch to 11 percent confirms an electoral potential that the party holds.

The prime minister's VVD, in turn, has only partially succeeded in establishing itself as the Forum's major opponent. The liberal VVD is ahead of the Forum, but for the second time this year, it is no longer the largest party in an election.

According to Michel Liegeois, a professor at Belgium's University of Louvain, the Dutch vote's outcome and 41.2 percent turnout (up from 37.3 percent in 2014) may prove that "the European project can still mobilize the voters."

"For the pro-Europeans in Europe, this victory at the European elections of Timmermans, who has been much more political lately, attacking relentlessly the Polish and Hungarian governments at European level, and 'pressing the flesh' at many electoral meetings in the Netherlands, is a source of optimism in their fight against the populist criticism of the Brussels nomenklatura," Liegeois told Sputnik.

It is however too early to conclude whether Timmermans' win in the Netherlands indicates a stop of the populism movement's rise, according to the expert.

"Timmermans is a good showman and a powerful character, and the Dutch are considered as very pro-European, anyway, but it could be an indication at least that the European idea is not in full decline," he suggested.

TIMMERMANS MORE ANTI-POPULIST THAN EVER

European Parliament elections are of great importance for the bloc as it is the legislature that will have a say in October in who will head the European Commission.

Timmermans is among those running for presidency. It was him who launched the Article 5 of the European Treaty procedure against Hungary, which threatens to strip Budapest of its voting rights in the council for allegedly not respecting the rule of law and attacking press freedom.

The commission's vice president is a very vocal critic of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, despite the fact that these two political forces have been elected with very large or absolute majorities.

Such an "offensive" against EU members is however shocking for some of European lawmakers.

"Mr Timmermans has been incredibly violent in his accusations against Mr Orban, accusing him of using the same method as the Nazis, in the plenary session of parliament that was dedicated by the left to a lynching of Viktor Orban and his party Fidesz. These political attacks are unworthy of a European Commissioner, even a socialist one," Gilles Lebreton, the head of the French National Rally's delegation in the European Parliament, told Sputnik.

According to Lebreton, Timmermans acts as a "political activist" and "demagogue," using his position as vice president, "where he should show neutrality, to vociferously attack the parties on the right."