THE HAGUE, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Elections for the European Parliament (EP) will be held in the Netherlands on Thursday and the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is leading the latest polls, just months after their victory in the general elections.
During the one-day vote, the Netherlands will elect 31 Dutch members for the EP, five more than in the last elections in 2019. At home, a new Dutch government is not expected to be formed until the end of June.
The 2024 EP elections, slated for June 6-9, will be the 10th for the European Union (EU) as well as the Netherlands, one of the EU founding members. The 2019 elections were won by the PvdA (Labor) party, but now the PVV are favorites to win.
Just as in the Dutch general elections, the most important themes in the European elections are migration, defense and international security, combating crime and terror, and climate.
With the election date looming, leaders of major Dutch political parties are taking to social media to attempt to sway undecided voters. The PVV, still riding high from its recent electoral success, has been particularly active online.
"Our families are safe again in the Netherlands, with the strictest asylum policy ever, make the PVV the biggest Thursday, so that the sun will shine again," PVV leader Geert Wilders said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Left-wing parties are also rallying Dutch to go out and vote for their representative to the EP. In a post on X, Green-Left-Labor alliance leader Frans Timmermans attempted to drum up support from voters. "The choice is clear: do you vote for or against a free, sustainable, safe and democratic Europe? On June 6 you will make a difference." The alliance is in favor of "humane reception and faster procedures" for asylum seekers.
The PVV won the latest Dutch general elections on Nov. 22, gaining 37 in the 150-seat House of Representatives, or the lower house of the parliament, to become the biggest party.
After several months of negotiations, the PVV reached a deal in mid-May with the right-wing People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), new centrist party New Social Contract (NSC) and the farmers movement BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) to form a new government.
The PVV leads the latest polls and is projected to win 9 seats in the EP, or almost a third of the 31 seats, ahead of the Green-Left-Labor alliance with 6 and the VVD with 5. Other parties will gain 1 or 2 seats, according to the polls.
The projections mark a significant victory for the PVV, part of the right-wing Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the EP, which currently has no representation in the European plenary. Although the PVV secured one seat during the 2019 elections, its sole representative, Marcel de Graaf, left the ID group in 2022 and joined the Dutch right-wing Forum for Democracy (FvD).
Moreover, the turnout for European elections is traditionally low in the Netherlands at around 40 percent. ■