Geert Wilders has congratulated Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on his victory in the country's parliamentary elections, but the right-wing populist promises firm opposition if he does not end up in the ruling coalition.
"I would rather have been the largest party," the leader of the anti-Islam Party for Freedom told reporters on Wednesday night.
"(But) we gained seats. That's a result to be proud of."
Exit polls projected Rutte's centre-right VVD Party to win 31 of parliament's 150 seats, down from 41 at the last vote in 2012 but ahead of Wilders' Party for Freedom, which tied in second place with two other parties at 19 each.
Wilders said his party's influence on Dutch politics had been enormous.
He said he did not understand Rutte's comment that Dutch voters had said no to the "wrong kind of populists".
"I don't know what he means. He is implying there are good and bad populists. I don't see myself as a populist but he is suggesting I am a bad populist and some kind of Nazi," Wilders said.
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