New Low for Coalition in Poll
THE HAGUE, 20/08/13 - The conservative (VVD) and Labour (PvdA) coalition partners would only have a combined 34 seats in the 150-seat Lower House if elections were held now. Geert Wilders is in the lead, according to a poll by Maurice de Hond.
In last year's general elections, the VVD won 41 seats and the PvdA, 38. They would now plunge to 21 and 13 respectively. Wilders' Party for Freedom would emerge as the biggest party with 30 seats, double its present 15 seats. The Socialist Party (SP) would climb from 15 to 24 seats, followed by centre-left D66 with 18 and the Christian democrats (CDA) with 15. The older people's party 50PLUS can count on 10 seats. Small Christian parties ChristenUnie with 6 and SGP with 4, the leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) with 5 and the Party for Animals, also with 4, bring up the rear. PVV and SP are doing particularly well among voters aged between 45 and 54, according to De Hond. They are siphoning off man votes among those with less education, but have also made gains from the last real elections among the better educated. De Hond signals "increasingly looser ties between voters and political parties, as a result of which in election after election, specific circumstances in the run-up to the elections will determine the outcome. With the result that the support for the administration to be formed nationally or in the municipalities, will be low almost by definition after the elections." De Hond's poll is held via the Internet among at least 2,500 people from a sample survey among some 40,000 who have ever put themselves forward for his panel. The polling days were Friday and Saturday. |