Mark Rutte

Europe will soon be the site of "religion wars," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on March 16, in Ankara's first comment on the general elections in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberal VVD. 

Europe will soon be the site of "holy wars," Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on March 16, in Ankara's first comment on the general elections in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberal VVD. 

The center-right party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte won 31 seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament.

The far-right anti-islamic Freedom Party of Geert Wilders is on second place with two other parties, all won 19 seats, according to exit poll, quoted by the Dutch public television.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte easily defeated a strong challenge by far-right rival Geert Wilders in key elections seen as a bellwether of populist support in Europe, partial vote counts said on March 15.

The Dutch began voting on March 15 in an election seen as a test of anti-establishment and anti-immigrant sentiment in the middle of a fiery dispute with Turkey and at a time of doubts about the future of the European Union.

The political and diplomatic confrontation between the Netherlands and Turkey have left its mark on the Dutch voters. In the elections the current Prime Minister Mark Rutte is after a third term in office while the far-right Geert Wilders has been leading the majority of the polls so far.

The seats will be contested by 28 parties, but the proportionate representation allows even the smallest ones play a certain role within the parliament. Besides, none of the parties is likely to get a clear majority of 76 seats or more, so a coalition will be necessary in order to form the government.

Polls suggest results could be close in the Netherlands' parliamentary elections on March 15, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte's VVD Liberal party returning as the largest party in the 150-seat parliament by a whisker.

At the same time as the European Union's foreign and security representative, Federica Mogherini, and Expansion Commissioner Johannes Hahn were making a joint statement over the tension between Turkey and the Netherlands on March 13, Turkish EU Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik was staging a press conference in Ankara.

Speculation has it that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte needs to stem the flow of votes to far-right leader Geert Wilders in the upcoming elections, and this is why he is presently behaving the way he is with Turkey.