[dangus]

Not so great news:

The Christian Democrats, the “Republicans” of the Netherlands lost nearly half of their votes, from 40 to 21. Wilders’ party is anti-Islamicist, but has also been socialistic, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-drug. (It’s sort of as if Wilders figured out that Muslims kill gays.)

[dangus]

(Hopefully, the CDA will wake up and start fishing for Wilders’ supporters’ votes.)

[Red Badger]

You can take the European out of Europe, but you can’t take the Europe out of the European............

[Eurotwit]

That’s why I find the results interesting. The CDA are the sort of “republicans” that have largely helped create the tea party phenomenon. They ruled with the socialists in labour for goodness sake.

You also are less than truthful when it comes to Wilder’s economic agenda. Wilders want to lower taxes and remove government regulations. Yeah, he might be more libertarian when it comes to social issues than some freepers, sure...and he wants to keep the retirement age as is.

That is where Rutte’s strong showing come in. People in Rutte’s party where sceptical about cooperating with Wilders - not because of his anti islamic immigration agenda, but due to the issues of rising the retirement age.

In any coalition, Wilders would have to give that up. I.e. move the the right on some of these economic issues whilst retaining the stance against islamism.

However, getting a working coalition out of this requires more than Rutte and Wilders and is going to be very very difficult.

[Eurotwit]

FYI. Wilders’ socialistic party platform:

The Party for Freedom combines economic liberalism with a conservative programme towards immigration and culture. The party seeks tax cuts (€16 billion in the 2006 election programme), de-centralization, abolition of the minimum wage, and limiting child benefits and government subsidies. Regarding immigration and culture, the party believes that the Judeo-Christian and humanist traditions should be treated as the dominant culture in the Netherlands, and that immigrants should adapt accordingly. The party wants a halt to immigration from non-western countries. It is skeptical towards the EU, is against future EU enlargement with countries like Turkey and opposes a dominant presence of Islam in the Netherlands.[21] The party is also opposed to dual citizenship (see below).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Freedom#Political_issues

[Republic of Texas]

Baby steps.

[PapaBear3625]

The Christian Democrats, the “Republicans” of the Netherlands lost nearly half of their votes, from 40 to 21. Wilders’ party is anti-Islamicist, but has also been socialistic, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-drug. (It’s sort of as if Wilders figured out that Muslims kill gays.)

Sounds like a message has been sent to the Christian Democrats: copy Wilders' anti-Islamicist plank, or disappear from the political scene.