With Wilders’ defeat, white nationalists hit a wall in Netherlands

*** Holland chooses hope over hate in major loss to far-right ***

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands (March 15, 2017). Reacting to the defeat of Geert Wilders in the Dutch elections, Anneke Koojimans, Avaaz Campaigner in the Netherlands, says:

“Today, the Dutch people drew a line in the sand on the ‘rise’ of white nationalism and the far right. Holland clearly chose hope over hate, and the dutch rejection of Wilders sends a strong signal to the world that fear and division is not the path to power.”

In The Hague, members of the global citizens movement Avaaz celebrated the predicted result of the Dutch parliamentary elections with a big banner reading: “Holland chooses Hope over Hate” while chanting “Hup, Holland, Hup”.

In today’s election, Geert Wilders lost, showing that the majority of people do not support the alarmist, xenophobic, religious scapegoating rhetoric that dominated his campaign. His ties to Donald Trump's style of politics hurt him in the polls leading up to the vote - and his defeat will now set the tone for the French and German elections later this year.

In response to the election results, Sanne Painter, a young woman from Volendam, one of the strongholds for Wilders, said: "It is not our differences that divide us, but our inability to respect these differences. I was born in Volendam and live there still. The division is palpable, but with this election we found that dialogue can bridge those gaps and bring us together for a stronger, united Netherlands."

Avaaz, a global civic movement of 44 million people worldwide, including 500,000 members in the Netherlands, was one of the organizers of last Saturday’s Women’s March and members toured the country in an orange bus calling for a #voteagainsthate before the elections. During the campaign, Avaaz also launched a satirical video about the closeness between Donald Trump and Wilders, which became viral (5 million views in 4 days) and was widely reported in the Dutch media.

For more information and interviews:

* Media Office +31 629 28 0838, media@avaaz.org

* Anneke Kooijmans +31685712992, anneke@avaaz.org

* Christoph Schott  +31 6 2757 4431, christoph@avaaz.org