Anti-Islamist, Nexit advocate Wilders promises EP return after crushing election defeat
Nexit advocate Geert Wilders doesn't believe that his anti-Islam PVV will disappear from the European Parliament for good after the party's crushing defeat in the European elections last week. He called the results of the elections "disappointing" on Twitter, but added: "The PVV will be back. We have the best ideas."
According to the provisional results of ANP's election service, the PVV lost all four its seats in the European Parliament.
On Twitter, Wilders congratulated other nationalist parties in Italy, France and Flanders for doing well in the elections. He did not praise Thierry Baudet - leader of the other nationalist and anti-Islam party in the Netherlands, who also advocates for the Netherlands leaving the European Union. Baudet's FvD took half a million votes in the elections, gaining the party a total of 3 seats in the European Parliament. The PVV also lost ground to the FvD in the Provincial States elections earlier this year.
Before last week's elections, nationalists in the Netherlands held four seats in the European parliament, all belonging to the PVV. Now the nationalists hold three seats, all belonging to the FvD.
The PVV does stand a chance to get one seat back if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The European Parliament consists of 751 seats, distributed across the Member States based on the number of inhabitants per country. The Netherlands currently has 26 seats in the European Parliament. That will increase to 29 after the Brexit, with one seat each going to GroenLinks, VVD and PVV, according to ANP.
The Brexit is currently scheduled for October 31st. Whether the UK will actually leave the EU on that date, remains to be seen. The Brexit has already been postponed twice because the British politicians can't reach a consensus on a withdrawal agreement. This ultimately led to British prime minister Theresa May announcing her resignation last week.