Four days before elections to choose a new parliament, a late poll result put Diederik Samsom's Labour Party (PvdA) neck-and-neck with Rutte's previously dominant VVD party.

"I don't see them as a threat to me," Rutte told the conservative daily tabloid De Telegraaf in an interview published Saturday, "but as a threat to the Netherlands."

Over the last two weeks, opinion polls have tracked the meteoric rise of Samsom's pro-Europe PvdA, which has closed on the VVD.

Finally on Saturday night, Dutch public broadcaster NOS, on its website, put both parties at 35 seats in their "political barometer".

The party that wins Wednesday's elections will be in charge of forming a new coalition government in the 150-seat lower house, and a new prime minister is chosen from its ranks -- usually the party leader.

In his interview with De Telegraaf, Rutte warned of the consequences of a Labour win.

""We'll see fewer jobs and the return of waiting lists in health care, he said. "This is dangerous for the Netherlands."

He claimed Labour's policies would see "76,000 jobs lost" while his party planned to create 285,000 new ones.

Asked whether he would consider forming a so-called "purple" coalition which would include the Liberals, Labour and the pro-Europe centre-right D66 party to get a majority in parliament, Rutte said it would be a "difficult choice."

Purple is the term derived for a coalition between the three parties, whose colours are blue, red and green.

"A purple cabinet, I think is a long way away," Rutte said.

But Samsom hit back, saying from the campaign trail in Utrecht that he was "surprised" by Rutte's attack.

"We shouldn't campaign by trying to scare each other," Samsom said.

"I thought that we were going to campaign with our own policies in order to draw voters towards us. Not by saying how bad the others are. I don't think anyone wants that."

Political scientist Andre Krouwel said Rutte's claims were an indication that the VVD, which won 31 seats in 2010 polls, ahead of the PvdA's 30, was feeling the heat from Labour's rising popularity.

"Labour is getting really close -- and the VVD must be feeling quite anxious that their own election strategies aren't working that well," he told AFP earlier, before the latest polls were released.

Samsom took over the reins of a dysfunctional Labour Party in March.

At the time the party had seen its popularity slump in opinion polls to the equivalent of a mere 14 seats. Two weeks ago, the PvdA was still sitting at 18 seats in polls.

But a campaign blitz that saw Samsom taking the initiative in a series of televised debates seemed to have galvanised many undecided voters earning the former Greenpeace activist the title of the "comeback kid" of Dutch politics.

Fellow party members however claimed Samsom's campaign success had already started earlier this year when he was chosen to lead the party, after which he set out to meet ordinary citizens throughout the country.

Mark Rutte -- VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy)

Current Prime Minister Mark Rutte is a former Unilever executive fascinated by economic liberalism and the "American dream". His party was until recently leading in opinion polls, but one poll on Saturday put him neck and neck with the Labour Party.

Smartly dressed bachelor Rutte, 45, says his role models include Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. A junior minister from 2002-2006 he became the first Liberal Dutch prime minister since 1918 in 2010.

History graduate Rutte grew up in an upper-class suburb of The Hague but is unattached to convention: he cycles to work, drives a second-hand car, uses an old mobile phone and still lives in the flat he bought when he graduated.

Diederik Samsom -- PvdA (Labour Party)

Former Greenpeace activist Diederik Samsom, 41, since he became its leader in March has led a remarkable recovery for the party. The latest poll Saturday put his PvdA party level with the VVD. During his years as an environmental campaigner with Greenpeace, he was arrested at least 10 times.

He says that "the only real reason" he entered politics is his family, including a handicapped 11-year-old daughter.

Born in July 1971 in Groningen in the northern Netherlands, Samsom was deeply affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion in the former Soviet Union, which prompted him to read nuclear physics at university.

An excellent orator, Samsom's meteoric rise has been put down to his skill during televised debates. His in-depth knowledge of history saw him win three quiz shows, earning him the nickname of the "Quiz King".

Emile Roemer -- SP (Socialist Party)

Hard-left Socialist leader Emile Roemer, 50, is a former primary school teacher who was involved in local politics for years in his hometown of Boxmeer (population 12,000) before becoming an MP in 2006.

A local councillor who rose to be deputy mayor, the affable and rotund Roemer cites Martin Luther King as a role model and says he is disgusted by the rising inequalities and individualism in Dutch society.

The fourth of five children, Roemer had a Roman Catholic education thanks to his parents, fervent supporters of the Christian-Democrat CDA. But Emile Gerardus Maria Roemer joined the SP aged 18, becoming its head in 2010.

Geert Wilders -- PVV (Party of Freedom)

With his bouffant of white-blonde hair, far-right leader Geert Wilders, 49 is perhaps the best-known face of Dutch politics abroad thanks to his anti-Islamic crusade since founding his party in 2006.

But the heir to populist leader Pim Fortuyn, assassinated in 2002, has recently turned his political guns on Europe, calling for the Netherlands to leave the European Union and abandon the euro in favour of the guilder.

A former health insurance worker, Wilders joined the Liberal VVD in 1990 where his tasks included writing party leader Frits Bolkestein's speeches.

Vehemently opposed to the VVD's support for Turkish entry to the EU, Wilders left the party in 2004 and set up his own grouping in parliament. It became the PVV in 2006.

Wilders was tried and acquitted on charges of inciting racial hatred after he called for the Koran and full-face Islamic veil to be banned. He lives under 24-hour police protection.