European leaders have welcomed the result of the Netherlands election, which saw the anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders fail to become the largest in parliament.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right VVD won by some margin.

For Francois Hollande of France it was a “clear victory against extremism”, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed a “good day for democracy”, reports the BBC.

The vote was closely watched ahead of elections in France and Germany.

The Netherlands was seen by many as a bellwether for how populist parties will perform in those polls.

Celebrating victory, Rutte said the Dutch people had rejected “the wrong kind of populism”.

“The Netherlands said ‘Whoa!’” he declared.

With all but two vote counts complete, the prime minister’s party has won 33 out of 150 seats, a loss of eight seats from the previous parliament.

Wilders’ Freedom party was in second place on 20 seats, a gain of five, with the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the liberal D66 party close behind with 19 seats each.

The Green-Left party also did well, winning 14 seats, an increase of 10.

The Labour Party (PvdA), the junior party in the governing coalition, suffered a historic defeat by winning only nine seats, a loss of 29.

Turnout was 80.2 percent, which analysts say may have benefited pro-EU and liberal parties. The number of voters was a record 10.3 million, according to public broadcaster NOS.

Earlier, Rutte had spoken of the election as a quarter-final against populism ahead of the French and German polls.

BDST: 1238 HRS, MAR 17, 2017
SR