One Dutch Election the World Will Be Watching: QuickTake Q&A

Rarely has a Dutch election drawn this much global interest and financial-market attention. Geert Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party, seeks to score another victory for populism as the Netherlands holds parliamentary elections on March 15. His party lost its lead in opinion polls in recent weeks, slipping behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberals, and a couple of election-eve surveys showed the gap widening. But the race is still close enough to warrant the world’s attention.

The opportunity to form the next government of the Netherlands. But there’s no guarantee. Usually, the leader of the party that wins the most seats in the lower house of parliament gets to become prime minister. But on three occasions since World War II the winner has been excluded from the new coalition government. (Labor was the excluded party each time.)