Dutch PM Mark Rutte: Election Against Wilders Is The "Quarter Final," Next Is France, Germany

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Will the Dutch general election be the latest uprising led by the forces of populism, or the first recent sign of resistance to them? BBC Newsnight’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports from The Hague, where he asked the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte about the rise of populism throughout the Western world.

Rutte responded in an interesting way, characterizing the election where he could see himself replaced by anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders as the "quarter-finals" in a contest between mainstream Western and European Union governments and populist outsiders:

"I'm fighting to win," Rutter said about the challenge from Wilders. "I have called this the quarter finals. The half finals will be the French elections, and the finals will be the German elections. And this will be the five elections in a row --having had the Brexit and the Trump election in the U.S. This could be the third in a row [won by insurgent populists]. This could be the first one [won by the Establishment] where this domino stone is not popping off."

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