AMSTERDAM - Far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders won the Dutch elections and said he plans to lead the country’s next government, in a shock result that will resound across Europe.
The front runner Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius conceded defeat after a late surge in the final days of the campaign catapulted Mr Wilders’s anti-EU party past his mainstream rivals.
Mr Wilders’s Freedom Party will win 35 seats, according to an initial tally.
This more than doubles his representation from the previous parliament and gives him 10 more seats than his closest rival.
Only once in recent Dutch history has the leader of the biggest party not become prime minister.
Mr Wilders’s victory presents a challenge to the European Union project in one of the bloc’s six founding members as the world braces for the potential return of Donald Trump after the 2024 US presidential election.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...der-geert-wilders-leads-in-election-exit-poll
