Pollsters were predicting a knife-edge vote with four parties across the political spectrum vying to become the largest bloc in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Populist anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Long-time MP Geert Wilders, famous for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, is polling strongly.<\/p>\n Rutte\u2019s fourth and final coalition resigned in July after it failed to agree on measures to rein in migration. Rutte subsequently said he would not seek re-election but he remains in power as caretaker prime minister until a new coalition is formed \u2014 a process that could take months.<\/p>\n The vote could provide the Netherlands with its first ever female prime minister \u2014 the new leader of Rutte\u2019s People\u2019s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is 46-year-old Dilan Ye\u015filg\u00f6z-Zegerius, a former refugee who now advocates cracking down on immigration.<\/p>\n But also polling strongly in the final days of the campaign is veteran MP Geert Wilders, who has toned down his trademark strident anti-Islam rhetoric in campaigning in favour of promoting policies aimed at halting asylum-seekers from entering the Netherlands and tackling the cost-of-living crisis and housing shortages.<\/p>\n One poll Tuesday even put Wilders\u2019 Party for Freedom, or PVV, in first place, very narrowly ahead of the VVD.<\/p>\n A centre-left bloc of the Labor Party and Green Left also was in a three-way race to win the vote. Its leader, former European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans, was in his home city of Maastricht campaigning at the city\u2019s university.<\/p>\n Were Wilders\u2019 party to win the most seats, he would take the lead in moves to form a new ruling coalition in this nation where the voting system all but guarantees that no single party wins an overall majority.<\/p>\n A poster for Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius, a former refugee who now advocates cracking down on immigration.\u00a0<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n If he does, he shouldn\u2019t count on the support of Ye\u015filg\u00f6z-Zegerius.<\/p>\n Asked Tuesday on NPO Radio 1 if she would serve in a Cabinet led by Wilders, she replied: \u201cI don\u2019t see that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Netherlands is looking for a leader who can unite the country … who is for all Dutch people, who can lead our country internationally,\u201d she added. \u201cI also don\u2019t see that Mr Wilders could build a majority.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilders said the comments were a sign that the VVD fears his party could win the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cPanic at the VVD. The PVV is getting too big for them,\u201d he said in a statement urging supporters to make his party the biggest. The closest Wilders has come to power previously was when he agreed to support Rutte\u2019s first coalition without actually joining the Cabinet.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Thierry Baudet, leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy, was back in parliament on Tuesday after being attacked at a campaign event Monday night by a man who hit him on the head with a beer bottle.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very lucky,\u201d Baudet told reporters, saying the attack did not seriously injure him. A small wound was visible above his left eye.<\/p>\n \u201cI see it as a political attack,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cwe must continue with our campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n Polls suggest that Baudet\u2019s party, once seen as a rising star of the populist far right, will win a handful of seats Wednesday.<\/p>\n The New Social Contract party, set up over the summer by MP Pieter Omtzigt, was trailing slightly behind the top three contenders.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n