Election results emphasise north south divide

The results of Wednesday’s general election emphasises the north-south divide in the Netherlands, with support for the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders concentrated in the far south, and Labour dominating in the north.

In Limburg one in four voters opted for Wilders’ PVV, compared with one in seven in the country as a whole. And the party topped the poll in 80% of Limburg’s voting districts, a percentage the Christian Democrats used to count on, the Volkskrant reports on Friday.
‘It is astonishing how many voters from former mining districts, who used to vote Labour and Socialist, have now voted for Wilders,’ said political analyst Josse de Voogd. ‘The PVV presents itself as a right wing party with left wing social policies and that worked.’
The fact that Wilders comes from Limburg will also have helped because of the us versus them sentiment, De Voogd said. ‘The Catholic south is more prone to vote for someone from their region.’
The influx of cheaper workers from eastern Europe will also have played a role because many people from Limburg feel they have been pushed out of the jobs market, he told the paper.
Labour was the biggest party in the four big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague.
For a map showing the north south divide in the Volkskrant click here: