THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Pro-European Dutch parties were predicted Thursday to win most of the country’s seats in the European Parliament, with outspoken right-wing populist opponents of the European Union managing to take only four of the nation’s 26 seats.
In a surprise forecast, the Dutch Labor Party of European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans became the country’s biggest party in the European Parliament, according to an Ipsos exit poll.
“What an unbelievable exit poll!” Labor leader Lodewijk Asscher told cheering party faithful.
The poll was published by Dutch national broadcaster NOS after polling stations closed Thursday evening in Netherlands. Dutch and British voters had kicked off the first of four days of voting for the European parliament in all of the EU’s 28 nations.
The Dutch Labor party was forecast to win five seats, while the pro-European center right VVD of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte gained one seat to win a total of four seats.
“There is a clear majority of people in the Netherlands, if you count them altogether, who want the European Union to continue playing a role in tackling problems that need to be solved,” Timmermans told NOS, speaking from Spain.
The right-wing populist Forum for Democracy was forecast by the Ipsos exit poll to win three seats in its first European elections, but those gains didn’t primarily come at the expense of Europe’s mainstream parties. Instead, it appeared they came from other populists — the anti-Islam Party for Freedom led by firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders, which lost three of its four EU seats, according to the poll.
The splintered Dutch result echoes Dutch domestic politics: There are 13 parties in the 150-seat national parliament.
The United Kingdom was the only other EU country to vote Thursday, even as the nation remained in political turmoil over its plans to leave the bloc altogether. No exit polls were expected Thursday night from the UK voting.
Final results from all 28 EU nations will be published after voting ends late Sunday.
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Katz reported from London.
