ASSESSMENTS

Elections Will Measure Euroskepticism in the Netherlands

Jan 13, 2017 | 09:01 GMT

Elections Will Measure Euroskepticism in the Netherlands
Party of Freedom leader Geert Wilders wants the Netherlands to leave the European Union. But even if his party performs well in the next elections, it will struggle to enter the government.

(REMKO DE WAAL/AFP/Getty Images)

A series of national elections over the next few months will help decide the future of the European Union. The bloc's two largest economies, Germany and France, will hold elections and, depending on the status of its fragile government, its third-largest, Italy, may join them. Kicking it all off, however, is the Netherlands, whose voters will go to the polls on March 15. In the Netherlands, as in many other EU countries, nationalist and Euroskeptic parties are performing well in opinion polls. Even still, a Dutch withdrawal from the European Union or the eurozone is unlikely. Even if the Euroskeptic Party of Freedom performs strongly in the election, it would struggle to enter the government. Most mainstream Dutch political parties refuse to cooperate with Wilders and have said that they will exclude the Party of Freedom from the negotiations to form a government. The Party of Freedom is the only major...

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