Jan HENNOP -
Flamboyant Dutch populist Thierry Baudet was set to make major inroads on Thursday at European parliamentary elections, in a result that will be closely watched by other eurosceptic parties across the continent.
The 36-year-old’s Forum for Democracy party has come out of nowhere in the past two years and is now poised to win the same number of seats as Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals.
Fond of referencing classical literature, Baudet runs on a nativist manifesto that mass immigration is destroying Western culture, that feminism is causing European birthrates to fall and that climate change is a sham.
Rutte and Baudet sharply clashed in a debate hours before polling stations opened — watched by an estimated 1.5 million viewers on national television.
“Leadership means daring to swim against the stream. A moral compass. Exactly the sort of thing I find lacking in you,” Baudet fired at Rutte.
The Dutch premier in return berated Baudet for advocating a “Nexit” and wanting to leave the eurozone.
“If he (Baudet) becomes the largest party, he’ll try and rip Europe apart from day one,” Rutte said to applause.
Russia was also a key issue in a country still reeling from the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 just hours after it left Amsterdam.
Baudet likened European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to “Napoleon and Hitler” because of the EU’s stance on Russia, while Rutte slammed Baudet for wanting to ease relations with Vladimir Putin.
The debate veered into personal territory too, with Baudet asking Rutte when he had last cried, in a bid to capitalise on the premier’s publicly unemotional image — only to have to backtrack and offer his condolences when Rutte revealed his sister had died four years ago. Rutte then hit back by asking whether there was “something in your private life” that explained Baudet’s controversial comments about women.
Latest opinion polls show the Forum snatching as many as five of the 26 European Parliament seats allotted to the Netherlands, similar to Rutte’s ruling VVD.
Dutch exit polls were expected late on Thursday, although official results will not be out until Sunday.
Once best known for naked Instagram selfies, Baudet, who holds a law doctorate, stunned Europe in March when the Forum became the biggest party in the Dutch senate. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
