The final votes weren’t even finished being counted in the United Kingdom’s historic referendum on leaving the European Union when there were already calls for another referendum for another country to say adieu to the EU.
Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Dutch Party of Freedom, the Netherlands’ own anti-EU party, immediately congratulated the U.K. on the vote to leave the 28-nation bloc — and now he wants his country out too.
READ MORE: U.K. votes to leave the European Union
Channeling Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, Wilders applauded “Britain’s Independence Day.”
“The Europhile elite has been defeated. Britain points Europe the way to the future and to liberation. It is time for a new start, relying on our own strength and sovereignty,” read a statement on his website.
Although Wilders is not the country’s prime minister, he said Dutch citizens deserve to vote on their future – in a Nexit referendum.
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“We want be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders, and our own immigration policy,” Wilders said in the statement. “If I become prime minister, there will be a referendum in the Netherlands on leaving the European Union as well. Let the Dutch people decide.”
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He said that should happen as soon as possible and pointed to a recent TV news poll that suggested most Dutch citizens — 54 per cent — want such a vote. But a separate poll indicated most Dutch citizens — 58 per cent — were against a Nexit vote.
But other politicians in the Netherlands were expecting Wilders to seize on the Brexit referendum results.
“Wilders will jump on it,” the English-language website NLTimes quoted Christian Democratic Appeal parliamentarian Raymond Knops saying. “If the British vote for a Brexit, all hell will break loose in The Hague,”
The Netherlands is currently at the helm of the EU.
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