Alexey Tsvetkov: "France remains the main jocker in the European deck"

"Many expected in these elections to the victory of the extreme right -wing party of freedom, led by the populist Gerte Wilders, a supporter of the country's exit from the European Union and an irreconcilable enemy of immigration, who equated the Koran to Mein Kampf, refusing Islam in the status of religion and announced at one of the rallies that the Netherlands" do not need more Mororcans " On the website of Radio "Freedom" , commenting on the results of the parliamentary elections in the Netherlands.

“This last statement was considered an incitement of ethnic growth and served as a reason for the trial. Contrary to expectations, the Wilders party reached only second place, and the first was preserved by the moderately right-wing popular party for freedom and democracy Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The Dutch parliament is very multi -party, and even if Wilders had received the majority, respectable parties would hardly enter the coalition with him, without which it is impossible to rule the kingdom. Nevertheless, his defeat has a symbolic significance: voters, even those who, in principle, sympathized with the Freedom Party, clearly shocked the extremist statements of the candidate, the traditions of real tolerance and freedom are alive in the Netherlands. It is possible that the unexpected passivity of Wilders at the final stage of the campaign and his refusal to participate in most debates played a role. "

"However, there is still no reason to consider the prosperous outcome of the Dutch elections in the fate of Europe. First of all, because the party Rutta really retained the majority, but the Party of Freedom, on the contrary, acquired additional ones. In addition, Wilders himself is clearly less skillful and more impulsive politician than, we say, the head of the French National Front Marin Le Pen.

Elections in Germany will be much more important, where the far -right ones still have no chance, but now the deputies of the Bundestag will have to look back at them. In addition, the new candidate of the Social Democrats for the post of chancellor Martin Schulz goes almost a flush with an angel Merkel, and it is in her figure that many see a symbol of European liberalism in conditions of populist siege. "

"However, France remains the main jocker in the European deck. Marin Le Pen, is still the leader of the entire extreme right flank on the continent, and her opponent in the second round, for the first time in many years, can be Emmanuel Macron, a candidate without any political experience. In this tomorrow's Europe, the fact that the Netherlands were prolonged, though swayed. But still they resisted, it will be only a secondary circumstance. "