Dutch elections:

 

To explain the results, pro EU integration media and parties will spin it as an endorsement to their opinions.

 

Well... it isn't.

 

The two parties refered to as populistic are:

 

The PVV with Geert Wilders; extremely right-winged and xenofobic.

and

The SP; a eurosceptic party left winged.

 

The VVD, the 'liberal' party winning the elections claimed during campaigning that not a 'penny more would go to Greece'.

This party (VVD), that in fact has never taken a decision against EU integration and actually always supports it has deliberately campaigned sort of against the EU to gain support from PVV voting people.

 

What happened in these elections?

 

Political prognoses by a few private companies are highly valued in the Netherlands. Eventhough university professors in statistics and politics have warned against their influence, their prognoses get a lot of media attention. It gets to the point that the media actually take their prognoses as a base for their articles.

 

These prognoses became the dominant factor.

By stating their prognoses, based on an unreliable population of respondents for months and months in the last weeks people got the idea that the elections were about right winged against left winged.

 

It became about taking care of the elderly, healthcare, education, the crisis and how to approach it.

The EU integration debate was totally left out of it.

 

The Dutch media based their articles constantly on the unreliable polls thereby creating this 2 party choice. It reached a climax this week, creating this so called totally unexpected switch of strategical voters to these 2 parties.

 

So...these elections are steered by strategically voting to left or right winged policies; nothing to do with EU integration.