Hague, Dec 15 (UNI) The House of Representatives of the Netherlands, the country’s lower house of parliament, on Thursday elected Martin Bosma, a lawmaker of the Party for Freedom that won the majority in the house, as the house’s Speaker.
Bosma won 75 votes, while his rival, Tom van der Lee from the GroenLinks green political party, won 66 votes, according to the house’s broadcast.
This time, it took two rounds of voting to elect the speaker. In the second round, 146 votes were counted; therefore, the winner needed more than 74 votes.
The new Dutch House of Representatives was sworn in on December 6.
The Netherlands held snap parliamentary elections on November 22. The Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, won 37 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, followed by the left-wing GroenLinks-PvdA alliance with 25 seats and the ruling People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy with 24 seats. Wilders is known for his tough stance on migrants, criticism of EU policies and calls for a referendum on leaving the EU. He also opposes sanctions against Russia and does not support arms deliveries to Ukraine.