Dutch reject EU-Ukraine deal – POLITICO

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Prime Minister Mark Rutte casting his vote | Bart Maat/AFP via Getty Images

Turnout projected to be just over the threshold needed to send deal back to parliament.

By

Cynthia Kroet

4/6/16, 9:13 PM CET

Updated 4/6/16, 10:19 PM CET

The Dutch government suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday as voters overwhelmingly rejected an EU deal with Ukraine, with 64 percent voting No, according to an exit poll.

Turnout was 32 percent, according to provisional data from the broadcaster NOS, just 2 percent above the threshold needed to send the issue back to parliament. Earlier projections had put turnout at just under the 30 percent threshold.

The final result was due late Wednesday evening, polling organization Ipsos said. If the turnout does stay above the 30 percent mark, it would be the worst possible outcome for the Dutch government.

Although the result of the referendum is non-binding, Dutch law says that a No vote, combined with a turnout of more than 30 percent, would mean the deal having to be discussed again by parliament.

The deal — officially an “association agreement” — which aims at improving trade between the EU and Ukraine, provisionally came into force on January 1, but needs to be ratified by all 28 EU members. The Dutch parliament has already backed the deal.

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party, was quick to take to Twitter after polling finished, saying the result was “great” and hoping that the turnout passed the 30 percent mark.

Emile Roemer, leader of the Socialist Party, said: “I am happy with the result. People wanted to tell the government that Ukraine is too corrupt to sign an agreement with. They also wanted to show that Europe is only there for the elite and multinationals.”

Alexander Pechtold, leader of the liberal D66 party, which supported the deal, said: “I had hoped that the Yes and No vote would have been more tied.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who cast his ballot at a primary school in The Hague, had urged citizens to vote Yes.

“We have to help Ukraine build up a judicial state and its democracy. To support its minorities like Jews and its gay community. Therefore I call on the entire Netherlands: go vote and vote in favor,” he said.”Europe needs more stability at its edges.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had warned that a Dutch No vote could lead to a “continental crisis.”

“I want the Dutch to understand that the importance of this question goes beyond the Netherlands,” the newspaper NRC quoted Juncker as saying in January.

“I don’t believe the Dutch will say no, because it would open the door to a big continental crisis,” he said. “Russia would pluck the fruits of an easy victory.”

The referendum was seen by many political commentators as a vote on the EU and on Rutte’s government.

It was the first referendum to take place under a Dutch law that obliges the government to call a public vote on any petition that gets the support of 300,000 people. In this case, GeenPeil, an initiative set up by a far-right, Euroskeptic website called GeenStijl, collected more than 400,000 signatures in six weeks last fall.

The vote is an embarrassment for the government as it holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, and it brings back painful memories of another EU referendum.

In 2005, the center-right government of Jan Peter Balkenende backed a Yes campaign for plans to give the EU greater powers through a European Constitution, with disastrous results.

More than 60 percent voted No to the constitution, three days after the French also rejected the idea. The level of opposition and the turnout — 62 percent — exceeded all projections.

A No vote was also seen as a boost to the “Brexit” campaign.

“If the Dutch people vote No today, it will be a incentive for the British voters to say no,” Wilders had said.

 

http://www.politico.eu/article/low-turnout-as-dutch-reject-eu-ukraine-deal/