Close the Dutch borders,” Wilders told Rutte, as tempers flared in the 30-minute head-to-head televised debate. “I want The Netherlands to be the first country which stops this trend of the wrong sort of populism,” Rutte told reporters, just hours before the debate. Monday’s debate, plus Tuesday’s vote-eve round-table with eight political party leaders, could yet sway the poll, one analyst told AFP, estimating some 60 percent of Dutch voters remain undecided. In one tense exchange, Rutte said it was time to de-escalate the crisis, but Wilders retorted: “We must answer back. But it is a clear ideology that addresses concerns of a substantial group of the Dutch.

Source: Manila Times March 13, 2017 21:45 UTC