Schoof, Wilders and Rutte congratulate Trump on election victory
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Mark Rutte at the White House with Donald Trump in 2019. As Nato secretary-general he congratulated Trump on his second victory. Photo: AFP/Nicholas Kamm via AP
SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Prime minister Dick Schoof and Geert Wilders, leader of the largest Dutch coalition party, have congratulated Donald Trump on becoming the next US president even though the result has yet to be officially declared.
Schoof stressed the importance of strong bilateral relations via international organisations such as Nato, where his predecessor Mark Rutte recently took over as secretary-general.
“I look forward to our close cooperation on the shared interests between the USA and the Netherlands,” he wrote.
Wilders tweeted a simpler message in capital letters above a screengrab of a Fox News projection. “Always keep fighting and win elections,” he said, although as a two-term president Trump will not be eligible to stand again.
Rutte, in his new capacity as head of Nato, also said he had personally congratulated Trump. “His leadership will again be key to keeping our alliance strong,” he wrote.
By 10am CET Trump was still a few electoral college votes short of officially being declared the winner of the election, but all projections pointed to him winning a majority of the seven key “swing states” needed to defeat Kamala Harris.
Congratulations pour in
World leaders including European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister also congratulated the former president on his victory.
So too did Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alexander Lukashenko, long-term president of Belarus and a close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
(DutchNews)