The anti-Islam PVV has outstripped the ruling VVD Liberals in the latest weekly Maurice de Hond opinion poll and would be the second biggest party if a general election was held tomorrow.

The De Hond poll puts the PVV on 25 seats – one more than its current total in the 150-seat parliament, while the VVD is down a further 2 on 24.
However, while the twice-monthly Synovate poll which published on Friday also shows declining support for the VVD, the party remains the biggest with 30 seats.

Socialists lead
Synovate puts the Socialists on 27, Labour on 25 and the PVV on 20. The De Hond poll has Labour down two on 21 seats and the SP up one on 30.
Nevertheless, the drop in support for VVD means the five party-coalition which put together an austerity package at the end of last month would fail to win a majority in parliament if there was a general election tomorrow.
GroenLinks, another member of the five-party coalition has also lost support in the polls since the likely impact of the austerity package has become clear. In particular, pensioners with a small private income and commuters will be hard hit by the measures.
The government has been forced to take drastic action to reduce the budget deficit to below 3%, in line with eurozone rules.
PVV leader Geert Wilders has made it clear he intends the general election to be a referendum on Europe. The Netherlands is due to elect a new government on September 12.