On Wednesday, October 29th, the Netherlands held an early parliamentary election. The centrist party “Democracy 66” (D66) made significant strides in this fierce competition, matching the right-wing “Freedom Party” (PVV) and potentially gaining the upper hand in the formation of the next coalition government.
According to Reuters, as of early Thursday morning, with 98% of the votes counted, the centrist party D66 led by Rob Jetten and the Freedom Party (PVV) led by Geert Wilders both secured 26 seats in the 150-seat lower house of the Dutch parliament.
After a night of counting, with approximately 10 million votes cast, D66 held a slim lead of 2300 votes, and the counting work will continue on Thursday morning.
In this fiercely contested election, D66 emerged as the biggest winner, nearly tripling its seat count from the previous 9 seats, while the Freedom Party saw a slight decline in its seats.
Exit polls and preliminary results had indicated that the progressive centrist D66 would emerge victorious by a narrow margin, with the Freedom Party coming in second. However, the final vote count showed that Wilders’ party’s voting percentage was on the rise.
After the preliminary results were announced, D66 leader Jetten declared to the jubilant crowd, “We did it!”
Following the collapse of the four-party coalition government led by Wilders’ Freedom Party in June, making it harder for the Freedom Party to form a government again, D66 leader Jetten is poised to become the youngest prime minister in Dutch history.
The 38-year-old Jetten has seen a surge in popularity in recent months, with campaign promises including addressing housing shortages, investing in education, and tackling immigration issues.
However, in the early hours of Thursday, Wilders stated that if the Freedom Party ultimately emerged victorious, he would lead the coalition formation.
He wrote on X platform, “As long as the results are not completely clear, D66 cannot take the lead. We will do everything in our power to prevent this from happening.”
Wilders had led the Freedom Party to a major victory in the 2023 elections, winning 37 seats in the lower house. The Freedom Party (PVV), the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the New Social Contract Party (NSC), and the Farmers’ Party (BBB) formed a conservative coalition government, but their coalition partners refused to nominate him as prime minister, opting for Dick Schoof, the former head of the intelligence agency who did not belong to any party. The coalition government later collapsed due to controversies over immigration policies.
In the Dutch parliament, forming a ruling coalition requires at least 76 seats, meaning at least four parties need to be involved. One possible scenario is to form a coalition government including D66, the conservative Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the left-wing Green-Left- Labour Party (GroenLinks-PvdA).
However, with numerous political parties in the Dutch political landscape, building a stable alliance won’t be easy, and it is expected that coalition negotiations will take several months.