An election to replace the longest-serving leader of the Netherlands gives voters a clean slate

By MIKE CORDER and RAF CASERT
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — One thing is certain as Dutch voters cast ballots in a general election: Mark Rutte, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, is on the way out. His replacement after 13 years in office could be the country’s first female premier. Or a social democrat who left his job as European Union climate czar. It could be a far right anti-Islam lawmaker or a centrist who created his his party only three months ago. Wednesday’s results might be as complicated as the last half-year of polls in the European Union, where the rise of populist and hard-right parties in some nations shared the headlines with two key losses for them.