THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The party of anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders won a huge general election victory in the Netherlands, according to a nearly complete vote count early Thursday, that showed a stunning lurch to the far right for a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance.
The result will send shock waves through Europe, where far-right ideology is on the rise, and puts Wilders in line to lead talks to form the next governing coalition and possibly become the first far-right prime minister of the Netherlands.
With nearly all votes counted, Wilders’ Party for Freedom was forecast to win 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, two more than predicted by an exit poll when voting finished Wednesday night and more than double the 17 the party secured in the last election.
Wilders got a standing ovation when he met his lawmakers at the parliament building Thursday morning.
“Can you imagine it? 37 seats!” he said to cheers.
Other political parties were holding separate meetings to discuss the election’s outcome before what is likely to be an arduous process of forming a new governing coalition begins Friday.
Wilders’ election program included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union, a total halt to accepting asylum-seekers and migrant pushbacks at Dutch borders.
It also advocates the “de-Islamization” of the Netherlands. He says he wants no mosques or Islamic schools in the country, although he has been milder about Islam during this election campaign than in the past.
Although known for his harsh rhetoric, Wilders began courting other right-wing and centrist parties by saying in a victory speech that whatever policies he pushes will be “within the law and constitution.”
His victory appeared based on his campaign to curtail migration -— the issue that caused the last governing coalition to quit in July — — and to tackle issues such as the Netherlands’ cost-of-living crisis and housing shortages.
“I think, to be honest, very many people are very focused on one particular problem, which is immigration,” voter Norbert van Beelen said in The Hague on Thursday morning. “So I think that’s what people voted for, immigration and all the other aspects of leaving the European Union looking very inward as opposed to outward are just forgotten. It’s all about immigration.”
In his victory speech, Wilders said he wants to end what he called the “asylum tsunami,” referring to the migration issue that came to dominate his campaign.
“The Dutch will be No. 1 again,” Wilders said. “The people must get their nation back.”
Wilders, long a firebrand who lashed out at Islam, the EU and migrants, was in the past labeled a Dutch version of Donald Trump. His positions brought him close to power but never in it.
But to become prime minister of a country known for compromise politics, he must persuade other party leaders to work with him in a coalition government.
That will be tough as mainstream parties are reluctant to join forces with him and his party, but the size of his victory strengthens his hand in any negotiations.
Wilders called on other parties to constructively engage in coalition talks. Pieter Omtzigt, a former centrist Christian Democrat who built his own New Social Contract party in three months to take 20 seats, said he would always be open to talks.
The closest party to Wilders’ in the election was an alliance of the center-left Labour Party and Green Left, which was forecast to win 25 seats. But its leader, Frans Timmermans, made clear that Wilders should not count on him as a partner.
“We will never form a coalition with parties that pretend that asylum-seekers are the source of all misery,” Timmermans said, vowing to defend Dutch democracy.
The historic victory came one year after the win of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy’s roots were steeped in nostalgia for fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Meloni has since mellowed her stance on several issues and has become the acceptable face of the hard right in the EU.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who boasts of turning Hungary into an “illiberal” state and has similarly harsh stances on migration and EU institutions, was quick to congratulate Wilders. “The winds of change are here! Congratulations,” Orban said.
During the final weeks of his campaign, Wilders somewhat softened his stance and vowed that he would be a prime minister for all Dutch people, so much so that he gained the moniker Geert “Milders.”
The election was called after the fourth and final coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned in July after failing to agree to measures to rein-in migration.
Rutte was replaced as the head of his People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, a former refugee from Turkiye who could have become the country’s first female prime minister had her party won the most votes. Instead, it was forecast to lose 10 seats to end up with 24.
The result is the latest in a series of elections that is altering the European political landscape. From Slovakia and Spain, to Germany and Poland, populist and hard-right parties triumphed in some EU member nations and faltered in others.
In The Hague on Thursday, Dutch voter Barbara Belder said that Wilders’ victory “is a very clear sign that the Netherlands wants something different.”
In political shift to the far right, anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders wins big in Dutch elections
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In political shift to the far right, anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders wins big in Dutch elections
- The result will send shock waves through Europe, where far-right ideology is on the rise
- Wilders’ election program included calls for a referendum on the Netherlands leaving the European Union
Palestinian girls arrive in UK for medical treatment
- The pair, aged 5 and 12, have serious health issues that cannot be treated in Gaza
- They are the first people from the enclave to be given temporary British visas since the start of the warThey are the first people from the enclave to be given temporary British visas since the start of the war
LONDON: Two young Palestinian girls have arrived in the UK for medical treatment of serious health conditions.
The girls, named by the BBC as Ghena, aged 5, and Rama, 12, are the first Gazans to be given temporary UK visas since Oct. 7, 2023.
They flew from Egypt, where they have been living with complex conditions after Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed during Israel’s invasion.
Rama, who has a serious bowel condition, previously lived in Khan Younis and told the BBC: “We were so scared. We were living in tents and shrapnel from airstrikes used to fall on us.
“Mum used to suffer so much going to hospitals while bombs were falling and would stand in long queues just to get me a strip of pills. Here I’ll get treatment and get better and be just like any other girl.”
Her mother told the BBC: “I’m very happy for Rama because she’ll get treatment here. As a mother, I felt so sorry in Gaza because I couldn’t do anything to help her.
“To see your daughter dying in front of your eyes, day by day, watching her weaken and get sicker — it pained me.”
Ghena has fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could cause blindness if left untreated.
Her mother Haneen told the BBC: “Before the war, Ghena was having medical treatment in Gaza, in a specialised hospital. She was getting tests done every six months there and treatment was available.”
Haneen said the hospital was destroyed in the first week of Israel’s invasion, leaving the family with little choice but to seek help elsewhere.
“She began complaining about the pain,” Haneen said. “She would wake up screaming in pain at night.”
Haneen added: “I hope she gets better here. In Gaza there are thousands of injured and sick children who need medical treatment. I hope they get a chance like Ghena.”
The girls were assisted by Project Pure Hope and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which worked with the World Health Organization to get them to the UK for treatment.
PCRF Chairwoman Vivian Khalaf told the BBC: “We came across these cases through an ongoing list that is getting longer and longer of children who need urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza.
“The current physicians and hospitals that continue to be operating to whatever extent have determined that the treatment isn’t available within Gaza.”
Khalaf said 200 children from Gaza have so far been taken abroad for medical treatment, including to the US, Jordan, Qatar and European countries.
The WHO has condemned the state of Gaza’s health system as “beyond description” after 18 months of conflict that has killed more than 50,980 Palestinians in the enclave, according to its Health Ministry.
Over 200 killed in at least 243 Myanmar military attacks since quake: UN
- Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter”
- A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“The unremitting violence inflicted on civilians, despite a ceasefire nominally declared in the wake of the devastating earthquake on 28 March, underscores the need for the parties to commit to, and implement, a genuine and permanent nationwide halt to hostilities and return to civilian rule,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following the 7.7 magnitude quake, the junta joined opponents in calling a temporary halt to hostilities on April 2 for relief to be delivered.
But Turk said that since the quake and up to April 29, “the military has reportedly launched at least 243 attacks, including 171 air strikes, with over 200 civilians reportedly killed.”
“The vast majority of attacks,” he added, had happened after the ceasefire took effect.
While the military renewed once its “largely unobserved ceasefire,” the truce had been allowed to expire on April 30, Turk said.
“It is imperative that the military immediately stop all attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” he insisted.
The UN rights chief decried how “the relentless attacks affect a population already heavily beleaguered and exhausted by years of conflict,” compounded by the impact of the quake.
Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter.”
“They need, and must have, peace and protection,” he said.
“International law is clear that humanitarian aid must be able to reach those in need without impediment.”
Turk urged the military to “put people first, to prioritize their human rights and humanitarian needs and to achieve peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
“Instead of further futile investment in military force, the focus must be on the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.”
Japan’s finance minister calls US Treasury holdings ‘a card’ in tariff talks with Trump
- Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February
- The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff
TOKYO: Japan’s massive holdings of US Treasurys can be “a card on the table” in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.
“It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo.
Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of US government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.
Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option.
Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys.
Kato stressed that various factors would be on the negotiating table with Trump, implying that a promise not to sell Treasurys could help coax Washington into an agreement favorable for Japan.
Trump has disrupted decades of American trade policies, including with key security allies like Japan, by i mposing big import taxes, or tariffs, on a wide range of products.
A team of Japanese officials was in Washington this week for talks on the tariffs.
The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff. The bigger tariffs will hurt at a time when Japanese economic growth is weakening.
Asian holdings of Treasurys have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to the most recent figures.
But some analysts worry China or other governments could liquidate their US Treasury holdings as trade tensions escalate.
US government bonds are traditionally viewed as a safe financial asset, and recent spikes in yields of those bonds have raised worries that they might be losing that status due to Trump’s tariff policies.
Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia
- The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary
- The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military
THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said.
The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports.
The man “confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,” the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday.
A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone.
The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary.
Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania.
Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.
Thailand reports first anthrax death, hundreds potentially exposed
- A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax
- There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added
BANGKOK: Thailand has reported its first anthrax-related death with two infections nationwide, prompting a public health alert after authorities identified hundreds potentially exposed to the deadly bacteria, officials said on Thursday.
A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax, the government said, with a second case confirmed in the same province and three additional suspected cases under investigation.
Authorities have identified at least 638 people as being potentially exposed after eating raw meat. Among them, 36 had participated in butchering livestock while the rest had consumed raw or undercooked beef, health officials said. All are receiving antibiotics as part of containment measures.
“All individuals who may have been in contact with infected meat are being monitored,” the health ministry said.
The Livestock Department is overseeing containment efforts in the affected area, including a 5-km (3.2-mile) quarantine zone around the infection site, the agriculture ministry said.
There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added.
Anthrax is a rare but serious disease caused by bacteria often transmitted through contact with infected animals or consumption of contaminated meat. It is not spread person-to-person.
Thailand last reported human anthrax cases in 2017, when two people were infected without fatalities. In 2000, 15 cases were recorded, also without deaths.
Wednesday’s death, the first fatality from anthrax in Thailand, follows a rise in regional infections. Laos reported 129 anthrax infections last year, including one death, while Vietnam confirmed 13 cases in May 2023.
Thai authorities are continuing investigations into the source of the infection and said they would maintain heightened surveillance in border areas.
