As the first exit polls from the Dutch elections were published on Wednesday evening (22 November), many of the country’s political elite had gathered their supporters in grand surroundings: conference centres, fancy restaurants and wedding venues, where they could toast their success among friends. The Green/Labour alliance held their affair in a former gas factory which fit a thousand guests, while the populist JA21 party held theirs in a former church. Geert Wilders settled for more modest surroundings: a cafeetje (small cafe) in The Hague, where a tiny podium was set up for him next to a dartboard.
At the time, the modest venue seemed fitting: in the run-up to the election, polls had predicted that the veteran anti-Islam campaigner’s Party for Freedom (PVV) would come third or fourth, picking up perhaps 29 parliamentary seats at best. Wilders’ party defied expectations, winning 37 – more than twice as many as at the last election, and enough to make PVV the biggest party in parliament. “A total earthquake is happening,” a jubilant Wilders lieutenant told journalists.
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