The big winner of Wednesday’s election – and now the largest party of the Dutch left for the first time – was GreenLeft, headed by 30-year-old Jesse Klaver, hailed by his enthusiastic supporters as the “Jessiah”. “This is a fantastic result for us, a historic victory,” said the party chairwoman, Marjolein Meijer. The result showed there was “very fertile ground in the Netherlands for change and a positive and hopeful story”, she said. “What I would say to all my leftwing friends in Europe: don’t try to fake the populace,” he said. And I want to change that.”GreenLeft was not the only non-mainstream party to prosper in an election that featured a record 28 parties.

Source: The Guardian March 15, 2017 22:17 UTC