Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and populist Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders questioned each other’s credibility and integrity as they faced off on live national television for the first time in the country’s election campaign, just 36 hours before the polls open.

The Liberal premier said he will not trust Wilders again after the Freedom Party walked away from supporting Rutte’s first minority cabinet in 2012 amid an economic crisis. “I’m not going to work with such a party again,” Rutte said at the end of the debate in Rotterdam Monday. “Not in a cabinet, and not even relying on you for support outside the government. No, never ever.”

Wilders accused Rutte of breaking promises he made before the elections in 2012. “Who still believes Rutte? I still see him standing there,” the Freedom Party leader said. “We would get tax cuts, a tougher policy on immigration, we would get 1,000 euros. And what came out of these promises? We had record after record immigration. And taxes only increased.”’

Three opinion polls Monday showed little change in the overall situation in the final stretch before the election. Two showed Rutte’s Liberals ahead of the anti-Islam, anti-European Union Freedom Party by a margin of three to four seats, with the other showing the two parties in a tie. Rutte has overtaken Wilders in most surveys as polling day approaches.

No party is set to win more than a fifth of the seats in the 150-member lower house, so a multiparty coalition will be needed. All the other major parties have ruled out working with Wilders.

David Fuller's view

Even if Wilders were to come first in this multi-party election, it would be very difficult for him to form a government.  Currently running second in the popular vote, should Wilders manage to do better it is still very unlikely that he could gain more than 30 seats, which is the top end of his performance in the polls. However, he would need to form a coalition of 76 seats to have a simple majority in the 150-member house.  Currently, other parties say they would not work with Wilders.  This would probably change if he were to handily beat Prime Minister Rutte.  Nevertheless, gathering sufficient seats to form a majority government would still be very difficult. 

Overall, governance will remain difficult within many EU countries, not least because of disillusioned, angry and divided voters.