Dear Editor,

So today, March 15, 2017, is election day in the Netherlands. It’s very complicated because currently they have 28 parties contesting for 150 seats, with 76 needed to win.

I believe it will be a close election, so it will greatly depend on who will join coalitions with whom.

Based on the last Parliament the election is amongst eight parties.

The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is the conservative party that had 40 seats, led by current Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The Labour Party (PvdA) had 35 seats, with leader and current Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher.

The Socialist Party, led by Emile Roemer, had 15 seats.

Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party had 13 seats, led by Sybrand van Haersma Buma.

The Party for Freedom (PVV) had 12 seats and is led by the populist leader Geert Wilders.

Democrats 66 also had 12 seats led by the Alexander Pechtold.

Gert-Jan Segers’ Christian Union had five seats.

GroenLinks, otherwise known as the Green Party, led by Jesse Klaver, had four seats.

Based on recent polls the VVD is again leading and the PVV is now in second place. Most definitive of all is that eight parties, based on pollings, will get over 10 seats. Therefore, the argument now is, if Wilders’ PVV gets over 30 seats who will join forces with him? Only the PvdA says yes. The CDA seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach.

The current prime minister’s VVD says no, but in recent days he has tempered his opposition to joining forces with Wilders. All I can say is don’t be surprised if the populist leader Wilders creates an upset like Brexit and Trump. Those most worried about the outcome of these elections should be the whole European Union.

Teddylee Gray

Teddylee.gray@gmail.com