"You've got the Germans bossing us around. Taxes are going to go up, pensions are going to be cut. And all this because of Europe. It would be much better just to let Greece leave the euro and carry on with the strong countries," he said. "The Socialists are much better for the common people."
The Socialists, who have renounced their 1970s Maoism and have never been in government, look poised to double their seats in the election by campaigning against Europe and the austerity that has sent governments toppling across the union, including the Netherlands, a successful prosperous core EU member with low unemployment and high quality of life.
Between them, the hard-left Socialists and thefar-right Freedom party, united in their hostility to Brussels, their resistance to austerity at home, and their opposition to helping the struggling eurozone countries of the south, look likely to take a third of the 150-seat parliament, shifting the terms of the national debate and complicating the eurozone's fight to survive. "It will be a big anti-European bloc," said Sarah de Lange, an Amsterdam University political scientist. "This campaign is all about Europe. The Netherlands have gone from being the most reliable ally on Europe to very hostile."
In Maastricht, the small wealthy southern town synonymous with EU integration and best known as the birthplace of the euro 20 years ago, the mood is sour. "I'm voting for Wilders," said Jo, a cafe owner, referring to the far-right anti-Islam populist, Geert Wilders and his Freedom party. "He's the only one who talks straight. He was the first to say we should get out of the euro. Now everyone's saying it."
While neither the hard left nor the far right are likely to make it into government, their success in shaping the agenda has also forced the mainstream parties, particularly on the centre right, to turn much more Eurosceptic, with the interim prime minister, Mark Rutte, declaring in a TV debate that Greece is not getting another euro of Dutch taxpayers' money...
...The sense is that most Dutch remain guardedly pro-EU and in favour of the single currency. But they are reluctant to transfer more budgetary and fiscal powers to Brussels – the EU elite's response to the crisis. And they are unhappy with deep spending cuts made quickly to meet EU targets by next year. Such a policy is likely to keep Brussels happy but throw the country into an unnecessary recession, whereas a slower, more phased programme of reforms would do less damage to a fundamentally sound economy.
Reflecting the public mood as well as the pressure from the political extremes, centrist parties, always strongly pro-EU, are now sounding much more ambivalent.
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