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Will the Dutch follow Britain out the door?

– ‘Dim chance’ –

“People don’t feel connected to a European commission or a council of men they don’t know… that they didn’t vote for,” Wilders told AFP, insisting the Dutch people had a right to their say.

But holding a binding referendum would require a change in the Dutch constitution, and a two-thirds majority in both chambers of parliament – something that would take years to achieve.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who ardently called for Britain to stay, said Friday he believed there was little “interest” in a ballot on the EU.

Wilders vowed that if he is tasked with forming a coalition government, “I would govern with parties that would want such a referendum.”

But former Dutch diplomat Boudewijn van Eenennaam told AFP there was only a “very dim chance” of that happening as “at this stage all the other political parties are not prepared to work together with Mr Wilders.”

The Dutch have however already twice voted convincingly against the European project. More than 61 percent of the Dutch rejected the draft European constitution in 2005.

And in April this year, they dealt the EU a further blow by rejecting its cooperation treaty with Ukraine in a non-binding ballot pushed by grassroots eurosceptics.

At their heart though the Dutch people are basically pro-Europe, and “everyone realises that their future is in the EU,” said Van Eenennaam, an expert with The Hague Institute for Global Justice think-tank.

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“My strong conviction is that there is far from a majority who would like to have a referendum, and certainly not on whether to leave the European Union,” he said.

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