Dutch far-right Freedom Party suffers shock reversal in polls

Results show tight race, with centrist liberal rival likely to form next govt

- Jonathan Eyal Global Affairs Correspondent

Far-right and anti-immigrant parties have long thrived in Europe, notching up rapid advances in most national ballots held on the continent.

No longer. With all the votes now counted in the Netherlands' Oct 29 General Election, the far-right Freedom Party led by Mr Geert Wilders - a politician who gained notoriety with his hate-filled speeches against immigrants and Islam - has suffered a shock electoral reversal, holding only 26 seats in the country's 150-seat Parliament.

The next Dutch government is now almost certain to be formed by the Democrats 66 (D66) party. This centrist liberal movement ran a campaign opposing everything the Freedom Party stands for and captured the same number of parliamentary seats.

Because the centrist party is much more acceptable to other political parties, the 38-year-old Mr Rob Jetten, the D66 leader, is now considered far more likely to form the next government, thereby becoming the Netherlands' youngest-ever prime minister, as well as the country's first openly gay government leader.

The result has stunned the Dutch political establishment and opinion pollsters, all of whom firmly expected Mr Wilders' party to be triumphant in the latest ballot.

Still, the method by which the Wilders "electoral wave" was defeated in the Netherlands will now become a copybook example for similar political battles in key European countries such as France or Germany.

Mr Wilders founded the Freedom Party - commonly known by its Dutch language abbreviation of PVV - two decades ago with a campaign to stop what he views as the "Islamisation of the Netherlands".

He has frequently argued that all immigration to the Netherlands should be stopped, and that those who settled in the country should be paid to leave it.

Mr Wilders was frequently hauled before the courts for his hateful speeches and was periodically banned from entering various countries.