Dutch Vote in Tight Race to Pick a New Prime Minister

Date: 22 November 2023 - 21:47

News ID: ۱۲۱۷۷۲

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch voters cast their ballots on Wednesday in a nail-biting election in which opinion polls show at least three parties - including the far-right - could hope for the top spot, with no clear leader emerging.
Only one thing is certain: the Netherlands will get its first new prime minister in over a decade after Mark Rutte resigned in July as his fourth coalition government collapsed, ending a 13-year tenure.
Restricting immigration - the issue that triggered the collapse of Rutte’s last cabinet in July - has been a key issue in the poll.
At stake is also whether voters in one of Europe’s most prosperous countries are willing to continue funding climate policies, such as an expensive rollout of offshore wind farms amid a cost-of-living shock witnessed across the continent.
No one party is on track to take more than 20 percent of the vote, and with late polls showing Labour leader Frans Timmermans and Geert Wilders making gains, many scenarios are possible.
Rutte’s successor at the helm of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz, a Turkish immigrant tough on immigration, is hoping to become the country’s first woman prime minister.
But she is neck and neck with Wilders and Timmermans.