The eurozone faces a major political test today (Wednesday) as Holland votes in elections that are expected to weaken Angela Merkel's grip on Europe and deliver unprecedented gains for eurosceptics.
The eurozone faces a major political test today (Wednesday) as Holland votes in elections that are expected to weaken Angela Merkel's grip on Europe and deliver unprecedented gains for eurosceptics.
The Dutch city of Maastricht gave its name to the European Union treaty that created the euro, but the country has fallen out of love with the single currency as eurozone austerity bites and taxpayers are asked to fund bail-outs for indebted southern European countries.
Opinion polls put radical eurosceptic parties in third and fourth place in elections that are expected to rob Mrs Merkel, the German chancellor, of a key ally as Holland swings to the Left, away from Berlin's doctrine of fiscal discipline and towards Francois Hollande's support for reduced austerity.
Mark Rutte, the Dutch centre-Right prime minister, is neck and neck in the polls with Diederik Samsom's centre-Left Labour Party, with many commentators predicting the biggest swing to the Left in Holland's history.
Mr Rutte yesterday warned voters that such a swing would damage the "Hague-Berlin" axis, jeopardising the country's close economic relationship with Germany. "If another party wins, there is the threat of a 'Hague-Paris axis' emerging. And France is the country of high state debt, high taxes and low economic growth," he said.
Mr Rutte is allied to Mrs Merkel, while Mr Samsom's calls for a spending stimulus have linked him to Mr Hollande, the French Socialist president, threatening to tilt the political balance further against eurozone austerity measures.
Dutch opinion polls yesterday predicted that Mr Rutte and Mr Samsom would receive 35 seats each in the 150-seat parliament, with commentators foreseeing a fragile coalition after the vote.
But as the eurozone economic crisis and budget cuts hit the Dutch hard, eurosceptic parties on both sides of the spectrum are predicted to make historic gains as up to 40 per cent of voters remain undecided.
Even pro-EU politicians such as Mr Rutte have been forced to adopt anti-EU rhetoric. "I have no time for the Europe of the blue flag and the little stars, some elevated ideal," he said yesterday.
The radical, former Marxist Socialist Party, which campaigns against eurozone austerity rules, is expected to come third with up to 25 seats, doubling its current number.
Close behind will be Geert Wilders, and his Freedom Party, who support a Dutch exit from the euro.
Diederik Olders, a Socialist Party activist campaigning on the streets of Rotterdam, said that while the Dutch were pro-European, they were increasingly anti-EU. "There is a growing awareness that the EU is ideological, it is no longer seen as technocratic and above politics," he said.
Many middle-class Dutch voters are backing the Socialists because they are worried about the impact of austerity on the welfare state.
Gerard Roijackers, a shop owner in the Oude Westen district of Rotterdam, said he was going to switch his vote to the radical Leftists, despite their Maoist and Marxist past. "Austerity is bad for business," he said.
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