Europe has its eyes set on the Netherlands general elections, scheduled to be held on March 15, which is set to be a bellwether for the political sentiment in the continent. After the unexpected success of Brexit and election of Donald Trump, will the Dutch elections follow suit on the wave of right-wing populism?

The results of Netherlands elections is set to give us some insight on what to expect from the upcoming French and German elections.

Let's have a look at how the Netherlands elections work:

The Netherlands is a fractured political environment and is based on proportional representation, which means a lot of parties get to represent themselves in the final forming government. A coalition of parties is imperative to form a government in the country.

The Dutch Parliament Tweede Kamer offers 150 seats for the parties and out of these a total of 76 are required to formulate a majority. This year's government is likely to comprise at least four to six different parties.

Which are the major parties and who are their leaders?

Party for Freedom (PVV) - Far right Headed by politician Geert Wilders, the party's popularity is slowly gaining momentum among the Dutch voters. Wilders is Euro-skeptic and staunchly anti-Islamic and has gained popularity in the country owing to the burgeoning nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment in the nation. USP: Far right, wants ban on Muslim immigrants, closure of mosques, ban on Quran sales and EU exit

Wilders, who is known as the "Dutch Trump" shares a lot of similarities with the United States President Donald Trump. The Dutch politician last year also showed his support for the American Republican businessman in the 2016 US Presidential elections and adopted the slogan "Make the Netherlands Great Again."

However, Wilders is more extreme in his views in comparison to Trump and is reportedly more consistent. Riding on the strong anti-immigrant wave across the world, he is strongly anti-Islamic and has called for the closing of all the mosques in Netherlands. Wilders has also called for taxing the women who wear hijab in the country and has likened the holy Quran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Polls over the months have shown Wilders' party getting a strong momentum in the country. However, his party was shifted to the second position by the current PM's party VVD in the latest polls.

When will the results be announced?

The results of the election will be announced overnight. Reports state that the votes will be counted on the same day of the elections and it is anticipated that a clear winner will be declared by 6 am local time. However, it will not be immediately clear which parties will form the coalition government as the discussion could take even months.</s>One of Europe’s smallest countries is about to take centre stage in a political drama that could impact the future of the European Union and test the limits of the populist power that led to Brexit in the U.K. and the election of Donald Trump in the United States.

People in the Netherlands head to the polls on Wednesday after one of the country’s most divisive election campaigns in decades. The results will be watched closely across Europe as a sign of whether the anti-immigrant populism that has gripped France, Britain and the United States is showing any indication of abating.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose Liberal Party is under siege, has called on the country to reject the narrow-mindedness of Freedom Party Leader Geert Wilders, who wants to halt to immigration, ban the Koran, close mosques and pull the country out of the EU.

“I want the Netherlands to be the first country which stops this trend of the wrong sort of populism,” Mr. Rutte said this week.

There are some signs of hope for Mr. Rutte and others who worry about Mr. Wilders and the threat that his brand of divisive politics poses for the rest of Europe, where key elections are coming up in France, Italy and Germany.

Recent polls show Mr. Wilders losing ground and several smaller, pro-European parties gaining. But the picture remains uncertain and, with 28 parties contesting 150 seats, no one is confident of the outcome.



“The potential for these populist parties is always there,” said Kristof Jacobs, a senior lecturer of political science at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. “It’s a bit like these small fires, they can turn into big fires in an instant. But it’s super difficult to predict when this is happening. And at the time when you think you have it under control, suddenly something happens.”

In many ways, the Netherlands is a microcosm for the challenges facing many Western democracies: how to manage a changing economy without breeding resentment and a backlash from those feeling left behind.

On the surface, this country is a beacon of prosperity. The economy is booming, unemployment is at a five-year low and consumer confidence has reached the highest level in nearly a decade.

University students such as 22-year-old Sem de Koning don’t even have to wait to graduate before landing a job. About one-third of his classmates at Erasmus University in Rotterdam already have jobs and he has no worries when he graduates next year.

“It’s pretty good right now,” said Mr. de Koning, who is studying business. “For us, there are plenty of jobs.”

But there are also cracks in that glowing exterior that have led to the rise of populists such as Mr. Wilders. His message taps into a growing unease among the middle class, people who have seen their wages stagnate for years and feel no better off than they did a decade ago. And while the middle class has stood still economically, the rich and the poor have done better.

“In the Netherlands, you have this odd situation, sort of a U-curve situation, where the poorest have done a little bit better than the middle class and the richest have done extremely well,” said Brian Burgoon, a professor of international and comparative political economy at the University of Amsterdam. “And that’s the kind of thing that really [upsets people]”

Part of the problem is the very nature of work in this country. The Netherlands has one of the highest rates of part-time employment in the EU and nearly one-third of the work force has flexible contracts, meaning their hours are not guaranteed.

That’s how Bastion Baker has lived for the last seven years, bouncing around bars and restaurants in Leiden, outside of The Hague, with no set hours.

“They tell you we’re trying to get you 30 hours a week, but there’s no guarantee,” said Mr. Baker, 29, adding that he got by but never saved much money. “Now I have a normal contract and that feels really great, to be honest. It’s four days per week, 9 to 5, way easier than when I had my flex contract.”

Women, in particular, hold a large percentage of part-time jobs, with roughly 76 per cent working less than 36 hours a week, the highest level in the EU. That’s partly because women were relative latecomers to the labour market in the Netherlands. But it has led to what Prof. Burgoon calls “the one-and-a-half job economy,” where in order for families to make ends meet the husband holds a full-time job and his wife works part time.

“If you look at that issue, you see that the Dutch have, in a sense, outstripped anyone else in the [EU] in moving toward these more flexible and insecure economic lives for people,” he added.

Just as the middle class felt a growing sense of economic insecurity, the government expanded benefits for the poor. That only fuelled Mr. Wilders’s anti-migrant message because migrants are twice as likely to be unemployed, and five times more likely to be on welfare.

And that’s why his call to shut the door to immigration and spend less on welfare for foreigners gets a receptive hearing. It only heightened during the recent refugee crisis when 90,000 migrants from places such as Libya, Iraq and Syria poured into the Netherlands in 2015 and 2016.

That, along with the perceived inadequacies of the EU, have also led Mr. Wilders to call for a Brexit-style departure, dubbed “Nexit.”

Other factors have been at play as well. The assassination in 2002 of political leader Pim Fortuyn, who led an anti-Islamist party, and the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gough in 2004, after he made a TV program critical of Islam, encouraged Mr. Wilders to quit the Liberal Party and launch the Freedom Party in 2006.

Since then, he has rarely topped more than 20 seats in parliament and the threat of assassination has left him living in seclusion.

But that hasn’t stopped Mr. Wilders from issuing fiery tweets and ratcheting up his rhetoric. He’s also prompted Mr. Rutte and other leaders to sharpen their tone on immigration, with the Prime Minister recently saying that if immigrants don’t like it in the Netherlands, they should leave.

The tone of the campaign has hurt people such as Raki Ap, a 32-year-old civil servant who came to the Netherlands as a child from Dutch New Guinea. He now feels uneasy walking the streets of The Hague where he grew up.

“For me, as someone with a foreign background, you can feel the communities in the Netherlands just crushing each other like this,” he said while grinding his fists together.

“You see the mindset of people, the way they look at each other, it’s changing.” For the first time in his life, he feels vulnerable and worried about the future for his two children. “It’s very sad to see it happen. But it’s a reality.”

Heading into Wednesday’s election, support for Mr. Wilders in opinion polls has fallen to around 13 per cent from 25 per cent last fall. He’s now projected to finish with around 22 seats, just behind the Liberals.

But the Liberals haven’t benefited from Mr. Wilders’s decline and their seat total is expected to fall as well. Instead, a host of other parties have seen their support soar and some polls indicate up to 14 parties could win seats.

Kees Verhoeven, a member of Parliament with the centre-left D66 party, said that’s a reflection of the declining support for Mr. Wilders and the disenchantment with the two main establishment parties, the Liberals and the Labour Party, which have dominated politics for decades.

Labour won 38 seats in the last election in 2012 and formed a coalition government with the centre-right Liberals, which won 41 seats. But polls show Labour could lose 30 seats on Wednesday and the Liberals could fall well below 40.

“This is the biggest change in the history of the Dutch elections,” Mr. Verhoeven said.

For him, the real story of the election isn’t Mr. Wilders, who will likely win about the same number of seats as he did in 2012. It’s the growing support for pro-European parties such as D66 and the Greens.

The game changer, he said, has been Mr. Trump. “Trump has done so many strange things that people think if we vote for Wilders, we get the same thing here and we don’t want it.”

That’s the message of Jesse Klaver, the 30-year-old leader of the Greens who has become something of a sensation in the campaign, drawing crowds of more than 5,000 people and leading some pundits to predict the party could quadruple its seat total to 16.

Mr. Klaver represents a sharp contrast to Mr. Wilders. He’s the son of a Moroccan father and a Dutch-Indonesian mother, who has the looks of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the politics of Democrat Bernie Sanders.

“We are pro-European, we are pro-refugee and we are very left-wing,” Mr. Klaver said during a recent campaign stop in Leiden. “I think people like Geert Wilders, the populists, are very dangers to the world. I think we have to make sure that we beat all the populists. Not only here in the Netherlands, but all over Europe.”

What does this mean for the EU?

In the end, far from turning away from the EU and toward a populist future, there is a chance the Netherlands could become even more committed to Europe. And, it’s not just here.

In France, Emmanuel Macron is leading the polls in the country’s upcoming presidential election campaign with a pro-European agenda. And, in Germany, the Social Democrat’s Martin Schulz, a former president of the European Parliament, has taken the lead from Angela Merkel in that country’s national elections due in September.

Meanwhile populist parties in both countries, the National Front and Alternative for Germany, have seen their support dip. If Mr. Wilders fails to come out on top in the Netherlands that bodes well for the EU which is also seeing a turnaround in the euro-zone economy.

“This is a critical moment for Europe,” said Anneke Kooijmans a Dutch social activist who spent much of the last few days travelling across the country in an orange bus, handing out tulips and urging people to reject populism.

“What we tell people is: You’ve seen Brexit. You’ve seen Trump. This is the end of the line for populism.”

Voters in the Netherlands head to the polls Wednesday for a historic election. Here’s a look at some of the issues, players and figures.

A total of 28 parties are contesting 150 seats in the House of Representatives. The Netherlands uses a proportional system, meaning parties are allocated seats based on the number of votes they receive. It takes about 70,000 votes to win one seat and parties rank their candidates on lists. One party rarely wins a majority of seats and coalitions are common.

The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or Liberals, headed by current Prime Minister Mark Rutte, formed the last coalition in 2012 with the Labour Party. But experts say this campaign has been so fractured that up to 14 parties could win seats and it could take as many as five parties to make up a coalition.

Geert Wilders has been getting most of the attention and his Freedom Party could win the most seats, although polls show his party finishing second to the Liberals. It’s unlikely he will be part of any government coalition, however, because none of the other parties say they would be willing to work with him.

Jesse Klaver, the 30-year-old leader of the Green Left Party, could be a dealmaker. His party is projected to win up to 16 seats and he is keen to form a government. The centre-left Democrats 66, or D66, led by Alexander Pechtold, could also join a leftist coalition. That party hasn’t been in government in 10 years.

Mr. Rutte has been Prime Minister for nearly seven years. He led the last coalition between the Liberals and Labour, but the Labour Party is collapsing in the polls and Mr. Rutte will have to find new partners if his party wins the most seats, as polls now predict.

He’s considered a skilled coalition-maker and, so far, D66 and the Greens have said they would consider working with him. The recent diplomatic row with Turkey has also helped Mr. Rutte, who won some kudos for showing leadership.

There has been much talk that the Netherlands might follow Britain out of the European Union in a kind of “Nexit.” Mr. Wilders has been advocating Nexit and dumping the euro. But so far there is little support for the idea and many say the Britain’s Brexit vote has made it less likely in the Netherlands. If anything, polls show voters moving toward pro-European parties.

What about the King?

Under the country’s constitution, King Willem-Alexander serves as the head of state, much like Queen Elizabeth. And just like the Queen, King Willem-Alexander meets regularly with the Dutch Prime Minister, opens parliament and signs legislation into law.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May won the right to launch divorce proceedings with the European Union and begin two years of talks that will shape the future of Britain and Europe.

Ms. May, who was appointed Prime Minister shortly after Britain voted to leave the EU in June, faced down attempts in both the lower and upper houses of parliament to add conditions to legislation giving her right to launch the divorce. Both houses backed the “Brexit bill” and after securing symbolic approval from Queen Elizabeth, expected in the coming days, Ms. May has the right to begin what could be Britain’s most complex negotiations since the Second World War.

The Netherlands goes to the polls on Wednesday in elections for the 150-seat lower house of parliament. Unofficial results should be known by late Wednesday or early Thursday. The official result will not be published by the country’s electoral commission until March 21. A day later, the old lower house will meet for the last time and on March 23 new lawmakers will be installed.

Prime Minster Mark Rutte of the right-wing VVD party holds a narrow lead in polls over anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom. But while Mr. Rutte is leading, his party is set to lose seats and Mr. Wilders looks likely to increase the size of his parliamentary bloc compared with five years ago. But other parties also are making gains – including the increasingly right-wing Christian Democrats, the pro-European Union liberal democrats D66 and the left-wing Green Left party led by 30-year-old Jesse Klaver. The 12.9 million voters are spoiled for choice in the country’s splintered political landscape: A total of 28 parties are fielding candidates.

Recent opinion polls show Emmanuel Macron as the front-runner in the country’s election and that he will go on to defeat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff, while Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon will be eliminated in the first round.

Voters in many countries choose their national leaders by going to the polls once. In France’s most consequential election in decades, citizens will have to cast their ballot four times. It’s not just the two-round presidential election concluding in May that will determine the country’s direction. A new legislature will also be chosen over another two rounds of voting in June. Only then will a clear picture emerge of where France is heading politically.

Italy’s ruling Democratic Party (PD) will hold its leadership contest on April 30, the center-left group announced on Friday, a decision that effectively rules out any snap national election in June.

Looking to re-establish his authority over the feuding PD, former prime minister Matteo Renzi resigned as party secretary general last Sunday to open the way for a re-election battle that he hopes will see grass-roots members rally to his cause.

An opinion poll published on Feb. 24 said the new movement would win just 3.2 per cent of the vote, leaving the PD on 28 per cent – still the largest party in Italy. The anti-system 5-Star Movement was second-placed on 25.3 per cent.

If elections are not held in June, the next possible date would be late September. Failing that, the legislature would carry on until its natural end in early 2018.

With files from Reuters, Associated Press and Bloomberg News</s>Image copyright AFP Image caption Voter turnout has been high so far

Voters are going to the polls in the Netherlands in the first of three crucial eurozone elections this year.

The race is dominated by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's centre-right VVD party and that of Geert Wilders, running on an anti-immigration platform.

Mr Rutte has said the election is an opportunity for voters to "beat the wrong sort of populism".

Mr Wilders has pledged to take the Netherlands out of the EU, close all mosques and ban the Koran.

His Freedom Party (PVV) had been leading in opinion polls but they have since suggested his support may be slipping.

Experts say turnout has been high - and could reach 80% - while some polling stations printed extra ballot papers to avoid running out.

Analysts say a high turnout, especially in the cities, could benefit pro-EU parties.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The Netherlands has 12.9 million eligible voters

France goes to the polls next month to elect a new president while Germany is due to hold a general election in September.

Wednesday's election also comes amid a diplomatic spat between the Netherlands and Turkey.

Voting Dutch: Quirky polling stations

Dutch vote turns spotlight on Moroccans

Could Wilders win?

"Whatever the outcome of the elections today, the genie will not go back into the bottle and this patriotic revolution - whether today or tomorrow - will take place," Mr Wilders declared after casting his vote.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Geert Wilders turned out to vote in The Hague

While a populist surge is still possible in the Dutch ballot, a host of other parties could also do well, leaving Dutch politics fragmented, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from The Hague.

As parliamentary seats are allocated in exact proportion to a party's vote share and no major party wants to be in a coalition with Mr Wilders, he has little chance of entering government however well he performs, our correspondent says.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dutch election explained in tulips

Protracted coalition talks are the likely outcome.

How are the mainstream parties fighting back?

After casting his vote, Mr Rutte asked his fellow citizens to imagine how the world would react if the Freedom Party came first.

"I think the rest of the world will then see that after Brexit, after the American elections, again the wrong sort of populism has won the day," he said.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mark Rutte waved for the cameras after casting his vote in The Hague

Earlier, in televised debates, Mr Rutte and Mr Wilders clashed over how to stem immigration.

Mr Rutte dismissed Mr Wilders's plan to close borders and mosques and to ban the Koran as "fake solutions".

Mr Wilders accused Mr Rutte of providing better healthcare for immigrants than for the Dutch themselves.

Lodewijk Asscher of the Labour Party (PvdA), the junior party in Mr Rutte's coalition, called Mr Wilders a man of "10,000 angry tweets and no solutions".

Who else is on the ballot paper?

Several of the smaller party leaders are being seen as potential power-brokers.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption From L-R: Christian Democrat Sybrand Buma, D66 Alexander Pechtold, Green-Left Jesse Klaver, Socialist Emile Roemer, Labour Lodewijk Asscher

Seven of the 28 parties running could win more than 10 seats in the 150-seat parliament, the polls suggest.

Christian Democrat (CDA) Sybrand Buma and liberal (D66) Alexander Pechtold might go into coalition in the event of a Rutte victory.

But other parties could end up as king-makers too, such as the Green-Left under Jesse Klaver and the Socialist party (SP).

None are likely to take part in a coalition with Geert Wilders.

Where are all the women?

All of the parties forecast to win 10 seats or more are led by men yet women made up more than a third of MPs in the outgoing parliament (58 out of 150).

Image copyright EPA Image caption Marianne Thieme took part in Tuesday's TV debate

In the past, the Green-Left was regularly led by a woman, including Femke Halsema, who held the post for more than eight years (2002-10).

Now only some of the very small parties have female leaders:

Sylvana Simons, Article One (which campaigns against discrimination)

Marianne Thieme, Party for the Animals

Dutch race row engulfs presenter Sylvana Simons

How important is the Turkish factor?

Image copyright AP Image caption A protest by hundreds of Dutch-Turks in Rotterdam ended in chaos

The row with Turkey followed Mr Rutte's decision to ban two Turkish ministers from addressing rallies in the country. In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Netherlands of being "Nazi remnants".

Mr Wilders described protesters who rioted outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam at the weekend as "scum".

One opinion poll suggested that the spat, and the riots in Rotterdam, had given anti-immigrant parties a boost but other polls indicated that the government's tough response to the rallies would benefit Mr Rutte's party too.

Turkey attacks Dutch with Srebrenica jibe

What does the vote mean for the rest of the EU?

With the sixth largest economy in the EU, the Netherlands is at the heart of the eurozone and EU decision-making.

Image copyright EPA Image caption In the city of Utrecht commuters could vote at the central railway station

Its reputation as a beacon for liberal values and tolerance in Europe has come under question with the rise of the Freedom Party.

Analysts say a strong showing for Mr Wilders could foreshadow next month's presidential election in France, where far-right, anti-EU contender Marine Le Pen has widespread support.

In Germany, another right-wing party, Alternative for Germany, is expected to win seats for the first time in September.

The rise of Marine Le Pen

Who's expected to win seats in parliament?</s>Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's party has won the most seats in parliamentary elections, first exit polls say.

His centre-right VVD Party won 31 out of 150 seats, polls suggest.

His party came far ahead of the next three parties, including Geert Wilders' anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV), the Christian Democrats and the D66 Party, which each got 19 seats.

Mr Wilders' party had been leading in opinion polls but support for the party appeared to slip in recent days.

Voter participation in the general election was high - and experts say the final turnout may reach 80%.

Analysts say a high turnout may have benefited pro-EU and liberal parties.

A campaign leader for Mr Rutte's party said the voters had given "trust again" to the VVD.

Many had been watching the vote in the Netherlands closely, as an indication for how populist parties may fare in other elections in EU countries.

France goes to the polls next month to elect a new president while Germany is due to hold a general election in September.

As parliamentary seats are allocated in exact proportion to a party's vote share, the VVD party will need to go into coalition with other parties.

The VVD will need at least three other parties before it can secure a majority.</s>Early exit polls indicated Prime Minister Mark Rutte had won the Dutch election on Wednesday, defeating main opponent and anti-Islam candidate Geert Wilders by a wider-than-expected margin, according to the Associated Press.

Polls suggested Rutte's center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy won 31 out of 150 seats, the BBC reported.

Amid years of increasing refugee populations in the Netherlands, immigration played a central role and ultimately became a flashpoint in Wednesday's contentious parliamentary election. Wilders, who openly scorned Muslims throughout his candidacy and once referred to Moroccans as "scum," was even referred to as the "Dutch Donald Trump."

As the March 15 election drew nearer, Wilders held on strong in the polls, causing concern among voters who feared the Netherlands would become the next domino to fall in a recent tide of European nationalism.

In April, French voters will head to the polls amid similar rumblings about the National Front's far-right Marine Le Pen, who has also enjoyed unusually high polling numbers as a populist candidate.</s>Voters in the Netherlands headed to the polls Wednesday in a closely watched election that is being seen as a key barometer of the political mood in Europe and strength of the far right.

The contest is the first of three crucial elections taking place in the continent this year — ahead of France in April and May and Germany in September.

It comes after the British referendum decision last June to leave the European Union, which encouraged those with nationalist and anti-immigration sentiments and has raised questions about the long-term viability of the 28-member bloc.

Previous Dutch elections have not attracted as much attention as this one, but many observers around the world have their eyes on the outcome to see if Europe will swing right, despite its fraught history fighting fascism.

The race has been bitter and divisive with immigration dominating the discourse.

Geert Wilders, a passionate anti-Muslim politician who has called for the Netherlands’ mosques to be shuttered and borders to be closed to asylum seekers and immigrants from Islamic countries, surged in the polls in recent months but the popularity of his Freedom Party has waned in the past few weeks.

During the final televised debate of the campaign Tuesday evening, more than 3 million people tuned in to hear the main candidates thrash it out.

In one particularly heated exchange, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher of the Labor party attempted to defend the rights of law-abiding Muslims who live in Holland.

"The Netherlands belongs to all of us, and everyone who does his best," he said.

But Wilders retorted: "The Netherlands is not for everyone. The Netherlands is for the Dutch."

Wilders' main opponent is Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, who has been in power since 2010.

After casting his vote Wednesday, Rutte urged people to try to imagine the global reaction if the Freedom Party secured the largest percentage of votes.

“I think the rest of the world will then see that after Brexit, after the American elections, again the wrong sort of populism has won the day," he said.

Recent opinion polls suggested that about half of eligible voters were still undecided heading into the ballot booths Wednesday, but polls also showed that an ongoing diplomatic fight between Turkey and the Netherlands appeared to have given a last-minute boost to Rutte’s ratings.

The row with Turkey stemmed from the government’s decision to ban two Turkish ministers from speaking at rallies in Holland because of concerns regarding “risks to public order and security.”

The speeches were intended to encourage the large Turkish expatriate population to vote “yes” in the upcoming Turkish referendum, which could expand President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

The Dutch felt the proposed presentations were ill-timed given the heightened concerns about immigration and Islamic radicalization dominating much of the Dutch election rhetoric. But Erdogan accused the Netherlands of using “Nazi” tactics and blocked the Dutch ambassador from returning to the capital, Ankara.

Pollsters were notoriously inaccurate at predicting the outcome of the British referendum, known as Brexit, as well as the U.S. election, therefore no one is expected to claim victory until long after the polls have closed at 9 p.m. local time.

The Dutch political system also works on a system of proportional representation, which means the 150 parliamentary seats are allocated in exact proportion to the amount of votes each party wins. After the votes have been counted, protracted discussions will take place to form the next coalition government.

Even if Wilders' party performs well and wins the largest vote share, he has little chance of becoming prime minister, as many parties have said they would not enter into a partnership with him.

Despite this, Wilders sounded an ominous tone after voting Wednesday, saying that “the genie will not go back into the bottle.”

“This patriotic revolution, whether today or tomorrow, will take place," he said in the capital, The Hague.</s>Wilders' Party for Freedom won 19 of 150 seats in Dutch parliament, according to preliminary exit poll. The nation's 13 million votes had until 9 p.m. local time to cast their ballots. Wilders has proposed banning the Quran from the Netherlands and issuing a ban on immigration from citizens from majority-Muslim countries. Rutte will need to form a coalition government, reports suggest.

The Pary for Freedom's 19 seats are fewer than analysts had projected. Exit polls reported that less than one in seven Dutch voters voted in favor of Wilders' party.

Wilders has broadcasted numerous inflammatory comments in his bid to drive Dutch politics to the right. He has said "immigration from Islamic countries should be forbidden," that the Muslim faith is "the Trojan horse of Europe" which will convert Europe in Eurabia and the Netherlands in Netherabia, and "I hate Islam."

The coalition could include at least four parties.</s>The Netherlands' ruling People's Party for Freedom and Democracy has won the most seats in parliamentary elections held on Wednesday, according to early exit polls. Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom is tied second with two other parties.The People Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) has won 31 out of 150 seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections, according to the first exit polls released by national broadcaster NOS."This poll shows that people trust us," Tamara van Ark, VVD campaign manager said, according to NOS.The VVD's main rival, the far-right populist PVV movement led by Wilders secured 19 seats in the house of representatives.Wilders, standing against the "islamization" of Europe, suffered losses in support days before the election, polls showed.The final results will be formally announced by the Dutch Electoral Council on Tuesday March 21, almost a week after election day.Informal talks are expected to begin on Thursday, but the formal process will be announced only after the new Parliament convenes on March 23.Right-wing sentiments have been running high across Europe, with several populist parties on the rise in countries such as France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, and others.The Dutch elections also took place against the backdrop of an escalating spat with Turkey which gave Rutte a chance to apply his diplomatic skills. Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, compared the Dutch to Nazis after Turkish politicians were banned from holding political rallies in the Netherlands.Rutte, however, remained adamant, stressing that his country had the right to deny Turkish politicians opportunities to carry out mass rallies on Dutch soil.</s>AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Dutch center-right ruling party emerged as the Netherlands’ largest in exit polls from the general elections Wednesday, despite predictions of a major electoral victory for the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders.

Volkskrant Daily exit polls showed Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy receiving 31 seats out of the Dutch lower house’s 150 and 19 for Wilders’ Party for Freedom. The centrist Christian Democratic Appeal and the left-leaning D66 party also had 19 seats, according to the polls.

In the 2012 elections, the ruling party received 41 seats and the Party for Freedom garnered 15.

The Dutch media have hedged the exit poll results regarding the Party for Freedom, citing the reluctance of many of its voters to identify as supportive of the party, whose positions diverge from mainstream rhetoric about the European Union, Islam and immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

In the exit polls, Wilders’ party replaced Dutch Labor as the country’s second largest. Labor picked up only nine seats this year, according to the exit polls, compared to 38 in 2012.

The Netherlands is ruled by a coalition government. The kingdom’s monarch appoints the politician he feels has the best chance of assembling a viable coalition. Typically the leader of the largest party is appointed.

“We have won seats!” Wilders wrote on Twitter. “First win is ours! And Rutte is far from rid of me!!”

Wilders was convicted of inciting discrimination in December for promising supporters to make sure the Netherlands has fewer Moroccans. He has called Islam a “fascist ideology” and supports banning the dissemination of the Quran, which he says should be subject to the same limitations imposed on Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

Despite the support of some Dutch Jews for the Party for Freedom — in a poll from earlier this month among Dutch Jews, approximately 10 percent of respondents said they favored it — the party also has angered many Jews with its support of a ban on Jewish ritual slaughter and by teaming up with other far-right groups, including France’s National Front.

Wilders was acquitted in 2011 of hate-incitement charges in connection with a short video in which he inveighed against Islam.

Wilders, who in his youth lived for two years on an Israeli moshav in the Jordan Valley, has called Israel “a place where I feel home” and said it was “close to his heart.” He has also called Israel a “canary in the coal mine” and “the West’s first line of defense against Islam.” He has said repeatedly that he is arguing for “Judeo-Christian values,” which he claims are threatened by Islam in the Netherlands and elsewhere.</s>The Latest on election day in the Netherlands (all times local):

The Netherlands' main exit poll suggests that anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders had an unexpectedly poor showing during the Dutch elections, finishing far behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

For Wilders, the poll was a test whether his fiery nationalist rhetoric caught the imagination of the population. Even if he increased his total in the 150-seat legislature from 15 to 19, it is was a disappointment since he was seeking to become the biggest party.

Instead, the poll suggests Rutte has 31 seats.

A Wilders victory would have further boosted the fortunes of populists across Europe. But now, it was the first indication since the Brexit vote last year, that populists could also be beaten.

Both Rutte and Wilders had defined Wednesday's Dutch parliamentary election as a litmus test for populism in Europe, where France and Germany also face crucial contests in the months ahead.

The Netherlands' main exit poll suggests that Prime Minister Mark Rutte has won the Dutch elections, easily beating anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders.

For the two-time prime minister Rutte, the poll indicated that an economic recovery and his hard-line handling of a diplomatic dispute with Turkey over the past week has won him support.

The Ipsos polling company gave Rutte's party 31 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, compared to 19 seats for 3 other parties, including that of Wilders. Weeks or months of coalition talks are expected to follow.

The exit poll was conducted at 43 of the 9,300 polling stations across the country Wednesday. It had a margin of error of two percentage points.

Voter turnout is high in the Netherlands as the country's parliamentary elections unfold under blue skies and warm spring temperatures.

Research bureau Ipsos, which is conducting an exit poll, says that turnout at 1:45 p.m. (1245 GMT; 8:45 a.m. EDT) was 33 percent, up from 27 percent at the same stage in the last parliamentary election.

Major cities also were publishing turnout figures. In Amsterdam, turnout at 1 p.m. (1200 GMT; 8 a.m. EDT) was 25.1 percent, compared to 14.1 percent at the last national elections, in 2012.

In Rotterdam, around 38 percent had voted at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT; 10 a.m. EDT), compared to 30 percent at the last national elections.

National broadcaster NOS reports that extra voting booths are being added at some popular locations, such as a high-rise tower in Amsterdam.

The Green Left leader says he has a recipe for beating right-wing populism in Europe: stay true to your ideals.

The 30-year-old Jesse Klaver has been the surprise of the Dutch election campaign and polls show his environmentally-friendly and socialist-minded party will do well when results are released Wednesday evening.

Klaver is convinced he has the answers to stop of surge of the far right in Europe.

He said: "What I would say to all my left-wing friends in Europe: don't try to fake the populace. Stand for your principles. Be straight. Be pro-refugee. Be pro-European."

Klaver added: "We're gaining momentum in the polls. And I think that's the message we have to send to Europe. You can stop populism."

Some Dutch voters are queuing up to cast their ballots on one of the newest pieces of their nation — a recently created island in a large lake north of Amsterdam.

Authorities have put a polling station on the Marker Wadden, an island created last year by Dutch land reclamation experts and intended to become a habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Nearby Lelystad municipality is offering free boat trips to the polls for voters in Wednesday's parliamentary elections. Authorities said the voting voyages were so popular they were adding an extra boat to ferry people to and from the remote polling booth, a round trip of more than three hours.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says his country's parliamentary elections can show the world that what he calls the "wrong sort of populism" can be stopped.

"It is the third elections after Brexit, after the American elections," Rutte said Wednesday as he cast his vote at a school in The Hague. "We have the upcoming French and German elections. And this is a chance for a big democracy like the Netherlands to make a point — to stop this toppling over of the domino stones of the wrong sort of populism."

Rutte and firebrand anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders have been in the media spotlight in the closing days of campaigning as many look to the Netherlands' vote for a sign of the progress of populism ahead of elections elsewhere in Europe.

Keen to mobilize as many voters for his VVD party as possible, Rutte repeated a warning he has been making in recent days — that despite his party's lead in most polls, the Netherlands could wake up Thursday morning and discover that "Geert Wilders is leading the biggest party."

A website that assembles data from major pollsters in the Netherlands has published its final tally and it's good news for Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The site Peilingwijzer has Rutte's right-wing VVD party taking between 24 and 28 seats in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament.

Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders' far-right populist Party for Freedom is in second place with 19-23 seats, narrowly ahead of the Christian Democrats, which are forecast to pick up 19-21 seats. Wilders' party has been losing ground in recent weeks.

The biggest loser looks like Rutte's junior coalition partner since 2012, the Labor Party, which is projected to take 10-12 seats, well below the 38 seats the party won four years ago.

Election results will begin coming in after voting stations close at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT).

A closing debate featuring leaders of Dutch political parties was far and away the most popular show on television on the eve of the country's election.

The Viewing Research Foundation, which publishes viewing figures, said that nearly 3.3 million people tuned into the debate Tuesday evening, the last major campaign event before voting got underway early Wednesday.

Second on the list was the 8 p.m. news by national broadcaster NOS, which preceded the debate, with 2.5 million viewers.

Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders says that whatever the result of Wednesday's election, the kind of populist politics he and others in Europe represent will be here to stay.

After casting his ballot in the Hague, Wilder said: "Whatever the outcome of the election today, the genie will not go back into the bottle."

He predicted the same feeling would show in elections later this year in France and Germany. He says: "Despite what the elite wants, politicians are getting strong who have a totally different concept of what the people want them to do."

Polling booths have opened across the nation in Dutch parliamentary elections, a vote that is being closely watched as a possible indicator of the strength of far-right populism ahead of national elections in France and Germany later this year.

Two-term Prime Minister Mark Rutte's right-wing VVD party was leading in polls ahead of Wednesday's vote, with the anti-Islam Party for Freedom of firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders a close second.

Rutte has framed the vote as a choice between continuity and chaos, portraying himself as a safe custodian of this nation of 17 million's economic recovery, while casting Wilders as a far-right radical who would not be prepared to take tough decisions were he to gain office.
Voters in the Netherlands go to the polls for a general election. Exit polls suggest that incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy will win the most seats in the election.