In a 'shadow' European election organised on Tuesday for secondary school students, the right-wing Freedom Party (PVV) garnered more votes than any other political group.

Nearly 15,000 students from over 140 schools took part in the mock poll conducted by the Institute for the Public and Politics. Just under 20 percent of the students voted for the PVV. If this result were duplicated in Thursday's real European elections, the PVV would end up with five of the 25 Dutch seats in the assembly.

The Labour Party scored slightly less than the PVV in the shadow poll, but still secured the percentage of the votes equivalent to five seats in the European parliament. The conservative VVD and Green Left were just behind with three MEPs apiece, while the Christian Democrats, the Socialist Party, the Animal Rights Party and the democrat party D66 each gained two. The two smaller religious parties, the Christian Union and the SGP secured one MEP between them.

In the last mock election before the 2004 European election, Labour was the largest party