Dutch Far-Right Party Falls In Election As Centrists Set To Win
JustinThe progressive Democrats 66 party was on track to win the Dutch parliamentary election after voters dealt a blow to Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party and threw support behind mainstream political groups.
The progressive Democrats 66 party was on track to win the Dutch parliamentary election after voters dealt a blow to Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party and threw support behind mainstream political groups.D66 was set to win 27 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, according to preliminary forecast published by ANP after 50% of votes were counted. The Freedom Party was poised to win 25, a loss of 12 seats.The result would put D66 leader Rob Jetten in a position to form a coalition government and potentially become the country's next prime minister. Centrist parties won enough seats to give D66 options to stitch together either a center-left or center-right alliance.
Wilders' surprise decision to pull out of the four-party governing coalition in June, triggering the snap election, has left his Freedom Party weakened and with no clear path to power. Jetten has cast his party as an alternative to the far-right firebrand.Jetten told his supporters Wednesday night that millions of Dutch voted "to turn the page on Wilders." He added that they "said goodbye to the politics of negativism and hate."He congratulated the centrist Christian Democrats, the center-right People's Party and the far-right JA21, which could be potential parters in a right-leaning coalition.
Most major parties have ruled out cooperating with Wilders, denying the Freedom Party a second shot at assembling a government — a fact that makes Jetten the clear winner."We had hoped for a different outcome, but we stood our ground," Wilders said in a post on social media after the exit poll.Once the results are final, an official will be appointed — historically by the party with the most seats — who will explore the different possibilities to form a coalition. In the interim, the outgoing government led by Dick Schoof will remain in a caretaker capacity. A final election result is expected Nov. 7.
The focus will now be on forming an alliance that has majority in parliament, a complex process in the Netherlands that can take several months. Due to the fragmented political parliament, at least three or four parties are typically needed to secure the 76 seats needed to reach a majority.The Netherlands is among the slowest countries in Europe to form a government. There is almost no barrier for parties to enter the lower house, meaning the vote can be split among very small political groups. After the last election, there were 15 parties in parliament and it took four parties more than seven months to form a coalition.
Jetten's D66 party had a rapid rise in the polls recently, projected at just 11 seats in September.
During the campaign, Jetten primarily focused on the housing shortage, which has consistently ranked as the top concern for Dutch voters. On migration, he's called for finding a balance between attracting international specialist staff needed in the country and ditching workforces that are less crucial to the economy.After Wilders won a landslide victory in the election in 2023, his Freedom Party entered into a four-way ruling coalition, intent on pushing through tough migration policies. But few of its goals came to fruition and Wilders finally pulled his organization out of government in June.
Dutch voters appeared disaffected with Wilders' failure to capitalize on any of his major policy priorities and more keen to restore some of the political stability the country lacked in recent years."The stakes for this election are really whether or not a stable government can be formed, one that is willing to compromise and that is also able to stay in power for four years," Sarah de Lange, Professor of Dutch Politics at Leiden University Institute of Political Science, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television ahead of the results.
