Dutch candidates hold debate before elections (socialist, liberal, conservative and far-right)
The nationally televised, prime-time debate featured former conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer, who is shaping up as Rutte's main opponent, along with anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders and center-left Labor Party leader Diederik Samson.
Wilders wants to leave the 27-nation bloc and reject the euro in favor of the guilder, while Rutte is pro-European and insists on bringing the country's budget deficit back within EU limits next year. Wilders, a right-wing populist who is seen losing voters to left-wing populist Roemer, immediately opened the attack on him, calling the socialist leader "the biggest Dutch Europhile."
Roemer wants to remain in the EU, but is calling for more time to bring down debt. He made waves here and in Brussels recently by saying that if he becomes the next prime minister, Dutch fines for not meeting tough EU deficit limits would be paid "over my dead body."
Wilders' walkout appears to have cost him support. He won 24 seats at the last elections in June 2010, but polls now show him winning around 15 and many political leaders are wary of enlisting his support after he torpedoed the last government.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120826/eu-netherlands-election/
Create to hear that support for the far-right is slipping in the Netherlands and that the socialist candidate is leading in the polls.
