AMSTERDAM - Two pro-European Dutch political parties are now
in a dead heat in the run-up to the Sept. 12 election which has been dominated
by the euro zone crisis, according to an opinion poll published late on
Saturday.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stepped up his attack on the
opposition Labor Party at the weekend after it surged in opinion polls to run
neck-and-neck with his own pro-austerity Liberal Party ahead of next week's
vote. The Liberals and Labor would each win 35 seats in the 150-seat
parliament, an Ipsos Synovate poll showed on Saturday night, putting the two
parties in equal place for the first time.