Centrist D66 party makes huge gains in Dutch election | Netherlands

The centrist D66 party made big gains in the Dutch elections and is likely to take the lead in government formation as far-right leader Geert Wilders loses support from his party.

When 90 percent of the votes were counted early on Thursday, D66 and Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) were expected to take 26 seats in parliament’s 150-seat lower house.

This was a sharp drop from the record set for Wilders in 2023; D66 made the biggest gains, nearly tripling its seat count.

Exit polls and preliminary results show the progressive D66 winning a narrow victory, with Wilders in second place. But the vote count shows that fervent anti-immigrant sentiment is slightly stronger.

The change in the early hours of Thursday is unlikely to change the make-up of the next governing coalition. All major mainstream parties have ruled out coming to power with Wilders after he ousted the last coalition led by the PVV.

The result paves the way for D66 leader Rob Jetten to form a government as the Netherlands’ youngest ever prime minister.

“Today we achieved D66’s best result ever,” Jetten told enthusiastic supporters at the party’s election rally in Leiden. “Millions of Dutch people have turned over a new page and said goodbye to negativity, hatred and ‘this can’t be done’ politics.

“Let’s also turn the page on Wilders and work on a wonderful future for our beautiful country… in the coming years, we will do everything we can to show all Dutch people that politics and government can be on their side again,” he added.

Even if the final results put the Freedom Party in first place, after the PVV’s shock victory in 2023, Wilders’ brief period in power appears to be over for now: all major mainstream parties have refused to join a coalition with his party.

The election was triggered when Wilders withdrew the PVV from the government in June, less than a year after the PVV took office, after the partners refused to endorse radical anti-refugee plans that were widely seen as unworkable or illegal, or both.

Wilders acknowledged that his party was unlikely to take part in the new government, but said his decision to resign was justified. “The voters have spoken. We expected a different outcome, but we stuck to our guns,” he said on social media.

According to the proportional Dutch system, 0.67 percent of the vote gives a member of parliament; This is a bar association approved by 15 of the 27 parties participating in the election; Including over 50s, teenagers, animals, universal basic income and sports parties.

This fragmentation means that no party has ever won a majority and the country has been governed by coalitions (the most recent consisting of four parties in three governments) for more than a century. The next government will be no different.

“When it comes to forming a new government in the Netherlands, the election results are not the end, but the beginning,” said Rem Korteweg of the Clingendael Institute in The Hague. “The cards have been shuffled. Negotiations can now begin.”

The centre-left Green Left/Labor Party alliance (GL/PvdA) had a bad night, finishing third with 20 seats (five fewer than the outgoing parliament and polls predicted), leading to the resignation of party leader Frans Timmermans.

The senior former European Commission vice-president said he took “full responsibility” for the outcome, adding: “It is time for me to take a step back and hand over the leadership of our movement to the next generation.”

But the center-right Christian Democrats (CDA), who campaigned for a return to “decent” and “responsible” politics in the Netherlands after the most extreme government in the country’s recent history, almost quadrupled its number of seats to 19.

With 76 seats needed to form a ruling coalition, a possible scenario would be a broad-based alliance including D66, CDA, GL/PvdA and the liberal-conservative VVD (the only member of the outgoing government to increase its seat count to 23).

However, this may be difficult to negotiate as the VVD opposes a merger with the centre-left GL/PvdA. Armida van Rij from the Center for European Reform stated that VVD leader Dilon Yeşilgöz “has repeatedly said that he wants a right-wing coalition.”

An alternative, more right-wing team could bring in the radical right JA21, which won eight seats to nine. Unlike the VVD, all other members of the coalition suffered heavy losses; one of these, the New Social Contract, did not win any seats.

In a campaign dominated by immigration, healthcare costs and the severe housing crisis in the Netherlands, Wilders’ PVV was consistently ahead in polls from mainstream centre-left to moderate right parties until days before the election.

Wilders said that if the PVV became the largest party and was excluded from the government, “democracy would be dead”. Their opponents said that first place did not guarantee a government and that any coalition with a majority was democratic.

Forming a coalition in the Netherlands can take months. After the voting informative It tests possible options that could rule the majority. Potential partners will then negotiate a deal and must undergo a vote of confidence in parliament.

Whatever the outlook for the future cabinet, it will need to act. Despite the campaign’s focus on immigration, voters consistently say the country’s biggest problem is the housing shortage, estimated at about 400,000 homes in a country of 18 million people.

Analysts warn that the Netherlands’ apparent return to a more prudent form of government could be short-lived unless this question and other pressing issues, including rising healthcare costs, are properly addressed.