Centrist D66 party set to win most seats in Dutch election, exit poll suggests

[muriel_volestrangler]

Result would pave the way for the Netherlands’ first out gay prime minister and end far-right populist Geert Wilders’ time in power

The liberal-progressive D66 party was on track to become the largest in the Dutch parliament, according to an exit poll, after a snap general election in which Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party was seen losing a third of its seats.

The poll, with a one- to two-seat margin of error, gave the centrist party an estimated 27 MPs in the 150-seat assembly, possibly clearing a path for its 38-year-old leader, Rob Jetten, to become the Netherlands’ youngest and first out gay prime minister.

The result, if confirmed, would mark a historic comeback for the almost 60-year-old party, which won just nine seats in the last 2023 election, and a serious setback for Wilders’ anti-immigraton Freedom party (PVV), forecast to slump from 37 MPs to 25.

Jetten’s resolutely optimistic, high-energy campaign struck a chord with Dutch voters disillusioned by two years of a fractious, ineffectual four-party PVV-led conservative coalition government that spent most of its time infighting and achieved little.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/29/exit-poll-suggests-progressive-d66-party-will-become-largest-in-dutch-parliament

Polls have just closed.

Guardian live updates: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/29/netherlands-parliamentary-election-geert-wilders-europe-latest-news-updates

Dutch-based English language site with several stories: https://nltimes.nl/top-stories

Pre-election polls had put the far right PVV slightly ahead, and I think usually with the Labour-Green alliance in 2nd.

He's young, openly gay, and I can't help thinking he looks like Pete Buttigieg:

[stollen]

1. While traveling through the Netherlands

last spring, we didn't meet anyone who liked Wilders.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. It's been very close, but nearly everywhere is now counted, and D66 has a 15,000 vote lead over PVV

Centrist D66 back in lead in Dutch vote count, edging past Wilders's PVV
Aaaand we have a change at the top, with the centrist D66 party back in the lead after almost all votes were counted in Amsterdam and Hilversum.

Rob Jetten’s party is now leading by 15,122 votes, NOS reported, putting it back in the pole position to lead the talks on forming the next government.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/30/dutch-election-results-netherlands-geert-wilders-rob-jetten-france-louvre-russia-poland-ukraine-latest-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-690364278f084e5a6d19876a#block-690364278f084e5a6d19876a

99.7% of votes now in: https://app.nos.nl/nieuws/tk2025/

So about 0.3% votes remain to be counted, out of about 10 million cast, so about 30,000. I don't think PVV can get 50% of the vote anywhere, so D66 should be the most popular party at the end.

This probably means they'll have the same number of seats, but getting more votes helps the case for D66 to lead the resulting coalition. And no major party wants to work with the PVV, so it would inevitably be a coalition that excludes them anyway.