The left-wing Socialist party is expected to seize the largest gains in September’s Dutch elections, threatening to deprive German Chancellor Angela Merkel of one of her closest allies in response to the eurozone debt crisis. With Dutch voters set to go to the polls on 12 September 12, opinion polls indicated that the Socialist party, which has never formed part of a government, is running marginally ahead of caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal party (VVD). According to a survey released on Wednesday (22 August) by opinion pollsters TNS-Nipo, both parties are projected to win 34 seats in the 150 member Parliament, with the centre-left Labour party (PvdA) expected to poll in third place with 21 seats. A poll of polls compiled this week by the University of Leiden pegs the Socialist and VVD parties at 35 and 33 seats respectively.
The election, which takes place on the same day as the German constitutional court rules on whether the European Stability Mechanism, the permanent EU bail-out fund, breaches national law, comes after the centre-right coalition led by Liberal leader Mark Rutte collapsed in April over budget cuts.
The Socialist party is more eurosceptic than the mainstream Dutch parties, leading opposition to the ill-fated Constitutional Treaty which was defeated in a 2005 referendum. It also opposed EU bail-out packages and the European Stability Mechanism, and is against further moves towards fiscal federalism in the eurozone.
Full Article: EUobserver.com / Political Affairs / Dutch set to defy austerity as left takes poll lead.
