Dutch prime minister and Liberal Party leader Mark Rutte addresses supporters after exit poll results for the parliamentary elections were announced in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday Sept. 12, 2012. An exit poll commissioned by the two biggest Dutch news broadcasters has predicted a narrow election victory for the Prime Minister Mark Rutte's free-market VVD party. The exit poll, which will be updated with late votes, gave the VVD 41 of the House of Representatives' 150 seats and the center-left Labor Party 40 votes. The poll has a 1.5 percent margin of error, and the broadcasters said the final result was still too close to call. (AP Photo/Ermindo Armino)
September 13, 2012 - 3:47 AM
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Conservative incumbent leader Mark Rutte was likely to form a coalition with the Labor party following a major election victory seen as confirmation of Dutch voters' support for the European Union.
In a boost for EU unity in fighting the continent's debt crisis, the two mainstream pro-EU parties defeated the Socialist party and euroskeptic populist Geert Wilders, whose party suffered big losses.
In provisional results with 98 per cent of votes counted early Thursday, Rutte's VVD surged to 41 seats in the 150-member Dutch Parliament and could theoretically form a two-party coalition with the centre-left Labor party of Diederik Samsom, which pushed up its tally of seats to 39.
An elated Rutte says, "people, people, this is a strong boost."
News from © The Associated Press, 2012