The only truly "anti-establishment" parties in the Netherlands are the VVD, the FvD and the Famer-Citizen coalition. Now that support for the latter has collapsed, even combined with Wilders they'll get about a quarter of the seats. The most intelligent and thoughtful dissident leader is Thierry Baudet, and it looks as though the FvD may not even win a single seat, so say goodbye to all of his epic speeches. Overall, considering the momentum behind the Dutch farmers protests last year, this is pretty disappointing.
I'm impressed by your knowledge of European politics, but you still look at it too much from the American/Canadian perspective. There was zero chance of these parties gaining a majority. The aim was to get as many seats to make it impossible for the powers that be to get around you. And these three parties gained more seats than anyone could have expected or predicted. FVD will definitely win at least 2 seats. From the last exit poll:
PVV (35)
BBB (7)
FVD (3)
That's 45 seats out of 150, nearly 1/3 of seats. That is pretty great.
Add to it other proper right-wing, populist and semi-populist parties, and you get slightly less than half.
NSC (20)
SGP (3)
JA21 (1)
That is 69 seats out of 150.
I'm not sure why you are disappointed. This is better than anyone on the 'right' could have hoped for (noting that a lot of European 'far-right' parties are not right-wing economically even by European standards, let alone American standards). I can guarantee you that no one in Europe dared to even hope for a result that was this good.
Does this guarantee government participation? No. Does this guarantee a good government? No. It's Europe. We're screwed no matter what. But it's pretty awesome all the same. Imagine a dying dog giving a vicious bite to a thug that beat it to death.
The only truly "anti-establishment" parties in the Netherlands are the VVD, the FvD and the Famer-Citizen coalition. Now that support for the latter has collapsed, even combined with Wilders they'll get about a quarter of the seats. The most intelligent and thoughtful dissident leader is Thierry Baudet, and it looks as though the FvD may not even win a single seat, so say goodbye to all of his epic speeches. Overall, considering the momentum behind the Dutch farmers protests last year, this is pretty disappointing.
I'm impressed by your knowledge of European politics, but you still look at it too much from the American/Canadian perspective. There was zero chance of these parties gaining a majority. The aim was to get as many seats to make it impossible for the powers that be to get around you. And these three parties gained more seats than anyone could have expected or predicted. FVD will definitely win at least 2 seats. From the last exit poll:
PVV (35)
BBB (7)
FVD (3)
That's 45 seats out of 150, nearly 1/3 of seats. That is pretty great.
Add to it other proper right-wing, populist and semi-populist parties, and you get slightly less than half.
NSC (20)
SGP (3)
JA21 (1)
That is 69 seats out of 150.
I'm not sure why you are disappointed. This is better than anyone on the 'right' could have hoped for (noting that a lot of European 'far-right' parties are not right-wing economically even by European standards, let alone American standards). I can guarantee you that no one in Europe dared to even hope for a result that was this good.
Does this guarantee government participation? No. Does this guarantee a good government? No. It's Europe. We're screwed no matter what. But it's pretty awesome all the same. Imagine a dying dog giving a vicious bite to a thug that beat it to death.
Dog's still dead.
I thought Europeans* generally liked and trusted the government.
(*dangerous fringe ultra global far-right extremist nationalists excluded)