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. 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. 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.
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.