Dutch reject EU agreement with Ukraine in referendum

(Vatican Radio)  The European Union is facing another political crisis after an overwhelming majority of Dutch voters participating in a referendum rejected a far reaching EU trade and political deal with Ukraine. The main national broadcasters and news agency in the Netherlands said 61.1 percent of voters rejected the agreement while just 38.1 percent supported it. However turnout was low with just 32.2 percent participating in the referendum, just above the threshold of 30 percent needed to validate the vote.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

"The democratic revolution has begun...And the bar is open" said leading Dutch journalist and writer Thierry Baudet of the Forum for Democracy group. He is pleased that most voters rejected the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine.

Baudet and other campaigners view the far reaching economic and cooperation deal as another example of the expanding undemocratic European Union. They also say it could lead to eventual EU membership for Ukraine, one of Europe's most corrupt nations.

Nearly two third of the roughly four million voters participating in Wednesday's vote rejected the deal. That came as a setback for Prime Minister Mark Rutte whose conservative-liberal VVD party campaigned for the Association Agreement saying it would boost trade.

Though this was a non-binding referendum, Rutte warned that his government would take the outcome seriously. "My political opinion is that if voter turnout is above the required 30 percent threshold with such a huge victory for the "No" camp, we can not just automatically ratify the agreement," he said in a reaction.

"Respecting voters"

Rutte added that he wants to take his time to speak with his cabinet, the EU and Parliament about the impact of the referendum "out of respect towards all voters."

Most Dutch parties have already suggested that the agreement can not be ratified if the results are officially confirmed.

The Netherlands, which took over the rotating EU presidency in January, is the only EU member states that didn't officially approve the deal. Yet to make the association agreement valid, all 28 member states have to ratify it.

That worries Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. He said his nation of 45 million million had become "the victim of an internal debate on the EU future in the Netherlands."

Analysts agree that the debate about the Association Agreement, which most Dutch people didn't even read, reflects growing anti-EU sentiments in this nation at a time when Europe faces is biggest refugee crisis since World War Two. Firebrand politician Geert Wilders of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom called the referendum in a tweet "the beginning of the end of the EU."