Mark Rutte building Dutch coalition

Mark Rutte building Dutch coalition

Associated Press


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Updated 11:14 p.m., Thursday, September 13, 2012

Work to build a new ruling Dutch coalition started Thursday, after conservative leader Mark Rutte bucked a European trend by winning an election despite pushing through tough austerity measures to counter the continent's devastating debt crisis.

Firebrand populist Geert Wilders was hammered at the polls, losing nine of his Freedom Party's 24 seats after campaigning to pull the Netherlands out of the 27-nation European Union and dump its shared currency, the euro.

Dutch voters clearly chose to reinforce pro-European measures.

Since Europe's debt crisis erupted in 2009 and plunged the continent into the economic doldrums, longtime Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi quit, Greece's government fell and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - a conservative like Rutte - was voted out of office.

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