Centrist D66 beats the far right to win Dutch election, national press agency announces

Rob Jetten’s centrist-liberal D66 party has won the Dutch election, according to the national press agency ANP, toppling Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV).

D66 and the PVV emerged as the equal largest in Wednesday’s election with 26 parliament seats each, but with almost all votes counted, ANP said Friday that D66 could not be caught for first place. It’s a narrow victory, with the party just 15,155 votes ahead of the PVV, with 99.7 percent counted.

Jetten said Friday it was a “historic result for D66,” and he’s “very proud of that.” He added, “At the same time, I feel a great responsibility to quickly start exploring options this week in order to form a stable and ambitious government.”

The result means Jetten is in pole position to piece together a coalition — a right typically reserved for the largest party — and to become the Netherlands’ prime minister if he succeeds. 

D66 and the PVV finished ahead of the center-right liberals of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), which won 22 seats in Wednesday’s vote; the left-wing GreenLeft-Labor alliance, which secured 20 seats; and the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), which collected 18. Conservative JA21 is the largest of the smaller parties, with nine seats.

Jetten has already made clear he sees the need for a broad coalition, as D66 is a “small large party” by Dutch standards, though caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof said Friday that the process won’t be quick.

Forging a coalition could become tricky if it involves convincing the center-right VVD and the left-wing GreenLeft-Labor alliance to join the same government, after they bitterly campaigned against one another.

Jetten said he hopes to form a “stable Cabinet,” and that a coalition in which D66 would be the most left-wing party is not his preference. “I think voters have made it clear that working together in the center is really the message behind this result,” he added.

He called on VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, who’s repeatedly rejected a coalition with GreenLeft-Labor, to “reflect” on that. “Voters want us to stop playing political games and really buckle down together,” he said.

The election result isn’t official yet, with mail ballots yet to be counted as well the votes cast in the municipality of Venray. The official result is expected to be announced by the Netherlands’ election authority next week Friday.

Jetten said he’ll propose a scout on Tuesday, who’ll be tasked with speaking with the leaders of all parties “from left to right” in the first round of talks.

In a reaction Friday afternoon on X, Wilders disputed the validity of ANP declaring D66 the winner.

“The Electoral Council decides, not the [national news agency] ANP, how arrogant not to wait for that,” he railed. The Dutch elections authority is expected to announce the formal result only next Friday.

Wilders added that he would resist a D66-led government “full force,” in a sign that the populist firebrand is already embracing his role as opposition leader

In a separate post shortly after, Wilders shared screenshots from what he claimed were messages he’d received, claiming election tampering. The far-right chief wrote he had “no idea if all of this is true but it would be good if this were investigated.”

His PVV was the largest party in the Netherlands’ previous coalition government. It was a Cabinet marked by infighting, which collapsed when Wilders withdrew his party over a dispute over asylum policy. The far-right firebrand has next to no chance of entering the next government as parties have ruled out joining forces with him.

With the exception of the VVD, Wilders’ former coalition partners took a beating in Wednesday’s election: The populist Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) lost three of its seven seats; while the centrist New Social Contract was decimated, going from 20 seats in 2023 to zero now.

Jetten also had a message, in fluent English, for centrist allies around the continent — and the globe.

“I think we’ve now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message and I’m very proud with this historic result for D66,” he said.

This story has been updated.