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Analysis from Politico, after most votes were counted, showed the PVV looked set to win 37 seats out of the 150 available in the Dutch House of Representatives – more than any other party, but well short of the 76 needed for an outright majority.
‘No solar parks, no wind turbines’
The PVV is actively hostile to wind energy and has denied the existence of human-caused climate change.
The Dutch Wind Association (NWEA) published an analysis of the energy and wind policies of all four leading parties ahead of Wednesday’s vote, in which it highlighted the explicit hostility of the PVV – and its leader Geert Wilders – to renewable energy and the climate crisis.
“The PVV denies climate change and finds climate policy wasteful. The party is completely against wind energy,” the NWEA said.
The PVV manifesto describes wind turbines as “hideous” and suggested a PVV-led government would shun renewables in favour of keeping coal plants open and doubling down on offshore oil and gas extraction.
Its manifesto states that the Netherlands Climate Act – and other policies aimed at tackling the climate crisis – would “go straight in the shredder” if it assumed power. It also said it would withdraw the country from the UN Paris Climate Agreement.
An additional policy point reads: “No solar parks, no wind turbines”.
New configuration
Second placed was the centre-left alliance of the Labour Party and Greens, the PvdA-GL, which was projected to win 25 seats. The PvdA-GL is led by the former executive vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, who spearheaded the bloc’s recent climate policy in the European Green Deal and said he wanted to speed up green transition efforts in the Netherlands.
The PvdA-GL’s expected 25 seats would likely put them ahead of the ruling centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), which was projected to win 24 seats by Politico — 10 fewer than it secured in the 2021 general election.
The centrist newcomer New Social Contract was expected to place fourth with 20 seats.
Unlike the PVV, the other three main parties are generally supportive of wind energy and in particular offshore wind. The VVD as the largest party of the current coalition government has targeted 21GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, alongside a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The Netherlands currently has over 9GW of wind energy capacity installed according to Windpower Intelligence, the data and research division of Windpower Monthly, the majority of which is onshore.
Unlike the PvdA-GL and NSC, the centre-right VVD has not explicitly ruled out cooperating with the PVV in a potential future coalition government, though its leader Dilan Yesilgoz said she would not enter a government which made Wilders prime minister.
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