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Shockwaves are reverberating through Europe after the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant PVV - or Freedom Party - claimed victory in the Netherlands' general election.

The far-right party is on track to become the largest party in the Dutch parliament. Exit polls on Wednesday night put the party, led by Geert Wilders, on course to win 37 seats, ahead of its closest-rival: a left-wing-Green alliance led by the former European Union commissioner Frans Timmermans.

Mr Wilders will now attempt to form a coalition government, though this may be difficult. Newsday heard from L茅onie de Jonge, Assistant Professor in European Politics and Society at the University of Groningen, who believes most people are still trying to wrap their heads around his landslide victory.

"What happened was the centre-right facilitated the rise of the far-right and this was preceded by decades of the normalisation of the far-right [by the media]."

"Campaigning on immigration [by the biggest centre-right party] tilled the field for the populist radical right."

(Pic: Geert Wilders; Credit: EPA)

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