Socialist Party: Wilders

Conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte Dept: The nationally televised, prime-time debate featured former conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Socialist Party leader Emile Roemer, who is shaping up as Rutte's main opponent, along with anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders and centre-left Labor Party leader Diederik Samson, according to Vancouver Sun. Wilders wants to leave the 27-nation bloc and reject the euro in favour of the guilder, while Rutte is pro-European and insists on bringing the country's budget deficit back within EU limits next year and tHE HAGUE, Netherlands - The leaders of the top four political parties heading into Dutch parliamentary elections clashed Sunday over the country's future in Europe in their first face-to-face debate, foreshadowing what is expected to be the key issue of the campaign. Rutte's Liberal Party and Roemer's Socialist Party are running virtually neck-and-neck in polls before the Sept. 12 vote for the 150 seats in Dutch parliament's legislative Second Chamber, setting up the possibility of a socialist-led government in one of Europe's key wealthy northern nations. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.