ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his main rival at national elections, the far-fight populist Geert Wilders clashed Monday in their only nationally televised face-to-face debate ahead of Wednesday’s vote, with Wilders calling Rutte untrustworthy and Rutte responding by saying a Wilders government would plunge the Netherlands into chaos.
The Dutch election is being seen as a key indicator of the future of populism in Europe after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. Later this year, two far bigger European nations, France and Germany, also go to the polls.
Wilders’ Party for Freedom, or PVV, has been sliding in polls recently but is still close to Rutte’s VVD.
“On Wednesday the Netherlands has the chance to prevent us waking up on March 16 and you are the biggest party,” Rutte told Wilders. “That chance is still very real. That would mean the biggest party is one that walks away when it gets difficult, which puts party interest above the national interest.”
The prime minister was referring to Wilders’ abandoning support for Rutte’s first minority coalition in 2012 by refusing to back a tough austerity package.