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Business Daily: Netherlands Vote: Is Populism still Popular?

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Netherlands Vote: Is Populism still Popular?

10/03/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Netherlands Vote: Is Populism still Popular?

Why will so many in this great trading nation choose a party that would reimpose borders?

As Dutch voters prepare to go to the polls in a general election on Wednesday, why will so many vote for a party that would reimpose borders around this great trading nation?

The Netherlands goes to the polls next week in a general election billed as a bellwether for rising populism across Europe. Right-wing anti-immigration, anti-EU politicians like Geert Wilders have done well in the polls despite the country's deep ties with its European neighbours.

Manuela Saragosa visits the southern Dutch province of Limburg, an area dependent on cross-border trade with Germany and Belgium and the home of the Maastricht Treaty, which established the modern European Union, but where Geert Wilders is seeing some of his strongest support. 

She hears why immigration and the EU are the biggest issues for one Wilders voter in the politician's home town of Venlo on the German border, and from local businesswoman on why open borders are vital to the regional economy.

Manuela also speaks to Limburg's governor Theo Bovens, who insists the Dutch will never leave the EU, and far-right politician Thierry Baudet, a euro-sceptic hoping to be elected next week. Plus, European populism expert Cas Mudde from the University of Georgia explains why he thinks many populist parties may already be in decline.

(Picture: A supporter holds a leaflet of Dutch far-right PVV party of Geert Wilders; Credit: Emanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

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