(5 Jun 2009)
1. Various of people gathered in City Hall
2. People waiting as results come through
3. Television screen showing early results
4. Mid of officials
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Jan Peter Balkenende, Dutch prime minister:
"I congratulate of course the Freedom Party and the party D66, one party is anti-European and the other is pro-European. And then for my own party, the Christian Democrats, we were the largest party and we continue to be that, and I'm happy with that result."
6. Mid of Hans van Baalen, VVD party's EU election campaign leader
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hans van Baalen, EU election campaign leader for VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy):
"I should be more in the Netherlands than I am in the European parliament because if I can't attract my voters, if I can't speak with my voters, I become a politician without a basis."
8. Mid of Geert Wilders, PVV party leader
9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Geert Wilders, PVV party (Freedom Party) leader:
"Well, I think two issues. The first is that we really had a strong message that we don't want to spend our money in Romania and Portugal but here in Holland. We never want Turkey to join the European Union, and we don't want this large European super-state. And secondly, because a lot of people are very much against this current government, are very fed up with it, we are a very strong and prosperous and positive alternative to that."
10. Pan of Wilders
11. Various of Wilders in interview
12. D66 Party supporters
13. Wide of Wilders
STORYLINE:
The party of a right-wing, stridently anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker won more than 15 percent of votes in the country's European Parliament elections on Thursday, according to the national broadcaster's exit poll.
The NOS poll predicted the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders would win four of the 25 Dutch seats in the European assembly, one behind the Christian Democrats of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
The exit poll supported pre-vote predictions that right-wing and fringe parties would make gains in many countries, where the economic downturn, cynicism over the union's eastward expansion and worries about relations between Muslims and non-Muslims were expected to fuel a voter backlash against mainstream politicians.
Wilders' party was second only to the Christian Democrats, which got nearly 20 percent of votes, according to the poll.
Speaking in The Hague, Wilders said his party's success was a vote against a sprawling and costly EU and against the incumbent Dutch coalition led by Balkenende and Labour Party leader Wouter Bos.
"A lot of people are very much against this current government, are very fed up with it, we are very strong and prosperous and positive alternative to that," he said.
Wilders, whose party was contesting European elections for the first time, won support from Protestant and Catholic voters disenchanted with what's perceived as the growing influence of the nation's 800-thousand Muslims, many of them immigrants from Morocco and Turkey.
Wilders, creator of "Fitna", a controversial short film that criticised the Quran as a "fascist book", had urged voters to reject EU involvement in immigration policy and said Turkey should not join the 27-nation bloc.
About 375 (m) million voters across the 27-nation European Union are voting on Thursday through Sunday, appointing candidates to 736 seats on the assembly in the second-largest election in the world after India's.
Official results will be announced in Brussels only after voting throughout the bloc is completed.
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