Dutch election: far right gains

The Dutch election yesterday saw an increasing polarisation of society and a dangerous shift that benefits the far right.

Although the right only moved forwards by 3 representatives (now 83 out of 150 in total) this is made up from five parties and there was a shift inside the right vote away from the more moderate Christian democrats, with the most shocking gains being made by Geert Wilders 'Party for Freedom' who went from 9 to 24 seats in one fell swoop making them the third largest party.

This is extremely worrying as the Party for Freedom is unashamedly anti-Muslim and anti-immigration. the fact that the three explicitly Christian parties all lost seats to the other two parties of the right might indicate a more general growing secularism, opposing both Islam and other religions, but this should not obscure the fact that Wilders' party is a clearly racist organisation, however they like to dress up their proposals.

The Labour Party and Socialist Party between them lost thirteen seats (3 and 10 respectively), which mainly appear to have been lost to the liberal Democrats 66 (who went from 3 to 10 seats) and the Green Left (who went from 7 to 10 seats).

I've put together this little chart of the new political make up of the Dutch House of Representatives, which I hope is helpful. Click on it to enlarge.


Quick explanation of chart:

The Party for Freedom is in black and the centre right parties in blue. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Christian Union and Reformed Political Party are all Christian parties who all lost vote share to the far right and the more secular VVD.

I've put Democrats 66 in yellow and in the middle although I'm aware that politically this is slightly more complex and they could well go in with the blue team ideologically.

The two center left parties are in red and the Green Left and the Party for Animals (!) in green. The fact I've placed the animal people on the far left does not denote that they are a bunch of commies, I just didn't know where else to put them, and next to the Greens seemed sensible.