The Netherlands' populist moment?

I ask the Dutch managing gathering's Europe representative what really matters to the decision one month from now. "Character," he answers decisively.

I attempt to ask his pioneer, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, about their procedure.

Close to the Dutch Parliament in The Hague, a little jam assembles in the snow and starts a commencement for Mr Rutte. "Tien, negen, acht" - ten, nine, eight - they serenade before he reveals the statue of Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, a nineteenth Century statesman, legend to Rutte's Liberal gathering, the VVD.

The fairly delightful blend of antiquated marble for the statesman himself and polished steel, depicting his present day proportionate, finish with a lady in a short skirt roosted around his work area, is the work of Tom Pucke, an English stone carver who's lived here for a long time.

He discloses to me his Thorbecke looks into the future with stress. "You find in his face a kind of worry, in his appearance, possibly he's worried about the way things are going."

The head administrator may well feel the same. Another commencement is well under route, to the race on 15 March, and Mr Rutte is turning out to be positively less liberal in response to the man driving the conclusion surveys.

Much sooner than there was Donald Trump, another populist legislator with an intriguing haircut was at that point making waves. Bleach blonde Geert Wilders was once prohibited from Britain.

Presently he's on course, as per most surveys, to head the biggest gathering of MPs in the Dutch Parliament. He needs to boycott the Koran and close the nation's Mosques.