AMSTERDAM — The Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders acknowledged Thursday that voters denied him a chance to rule his nation. But to many Dutch Muslims, his victory was secured long before his nation’s nail-biter election.
The reelected Dutch prime minister told immigrants to fit in or get out. A likely coalition partner wants to impose restrictions on refugees. A nation once known for its laid-back tolerance is now focused on its divisions. And while European leaders breathed a sigh of relief that a raucous populist had been beaten back ahead of elections this year in France and Germany, many Muslims say that Wilders’s raw racism is still ascendant.
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Rutte began the difficult work Thursday of forming a governing coalition, a process that is expected to take weeks or even months. Dutch citizens spread their votes across a wide spectrum of parties, electing 13 of them to parliament. Rutte will have to persuade at least three other parties to join his side, coming to office with a weak coalition whose main unifying principle is that it is anti-Wilders. That could be a long-term benefit to the right-wing firebrand if he can convince his voters that mainstream politicians are unjustly shutting their voices out of government.
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