Geert Wilders faces shutout as centrists hail huge gains in knife-edge Dutch election

Liberal Rob Jetten edges ahead of rightwing populist in race to form next government with 2% of votes still to count Geert Wilders is almost certain to be shut out of the next Dutch government after a knife-edge general election in which support for his far-right Freedom party (PVV) slumped and the liberal-progressive D66 party made spectacular gains.With more than 98% of votes counted from Wednesday’s election, the two parties were neck-and-neck on a projected 26 seats each in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament, with the difference between them only a couple of thousand votes. Continue reading...