Dutch voters punish leaders over Iraq war
Anti-war voters punish Dutch leaders
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Dutch government yesterday discovered the electoral price of its support for the US-led occupation of Iraq, losing seats in European elections which also brought gains for Eurosceptics campaigning to "clean up" Brussels.
The Dutch government yesterday discovered the electoral price of its support for the US-led occupation of Iraq, losing seats in European elections which also brought gains for Eurosceptics campaigning to "clean up" Brussels.
Preliminary results released after Thursday's poll showed voters anxious to punish the government and register a strong protest vote. However, turnout was higher than in either of the last two contests - up 9 per cent on 1999 results.
The Dutch authorities have courted legal action by allowing preliminary results to be released as soon as they were available, rather than waiting for all 25 EU countries to finish polling on Sunday night.
The deployment of nearly 1,400 Dutch troops to Iraq was a dominant campaign issue in the Netherlands. With most of the votes counted, the ruling Christian Democratic Appeal party of the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, had lost two of its nine seats. The main opposition Social Democrats won an extra seat, putting them on an equal footing with the Christian Democrats. Theanti-war socialists took two seats. The Liberal VVD lost two seats, and voters also registered a protest vote against the EU, giving two seats to a new party called Transparent Europe.
The group is led by Paul van Buitenen, a former EU official and whistleblower whose claims of mismanagement helped to bring about the resignation of the entire European Commission in 1999.
But the elections also underlined the disappearance of the party founded by the murdered anti-immigration campaigner Pim Fortuyn, which won only 2.5 per cent of the vote.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments