D66 social gathering says no time to waste as begins problem of discovering three coalition companions on fractious centre-ground.
Revealed On 31 Oct 2025
Dutch centrist chief Rob Jetten has claimed victory in a cliffhanger election dominated by immigration and housing after seeing off far-right contender Geert Wilders, saying his win proved populism could be crushed.
The 38-year-old head of the D66 social gathering, which gained probably the most votes on this week’s general election, is now set to change into the youngest and first overtly homosexual prime minister of the European Union’s fifth-largest financial system.
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“I feel we’ve now proven to the remainder of Europe and the world that it’s attainable to beat the populist actions in the event you marketing campaign with a optimistic message in your nation,” he mentioned on Friday, as tallying from information company ANP confirmed he was heading in the right direction to win.
The professional-EU, liberal D66 tripled its seat depend with an upbeat marketing campaign and a surge in promoting spending, whereas Wilders and his PVV Freedom Occasion misplaced a big a part of the assist that had propelled him to a shock victory on the earlier ballot in 2023.
D66, which presently has 26 seats however might achieve another when each vote is counted, is now anticipated to steer talks to kind a coalition authorities, a course of that normally takes months.
The social gathering might want to discover at the least three coalition companions to succeed in a easy majority within the 150-seat decrease chamber of parliament, with the centre-right CDA (18 seats), the liberal VVD (22) and the left-wing Inexperienced/Labour group (20) seen as contenders.
However there are questions on whether or not the VVD and Inexperienced/Labour will work collectively. VVD chief Dilan Yesilgoz mentioned earlier than the election an alliance with Inexperienced/Labour “wouldn’t work” and he or she needed a centre-right coalition.
On Monday, the Inexperienced/Labour group will elect a brand new chief after former EU Vice President Frans Timmermans stepped down.
On Friday, Jetten urged mainstream events from the left to the appropriate to unite. “We need to discover a majority that can eagerly work on points such because the housing market, migration, local weather and the financial system,” he mentioned.
‘Critical challenges’
Reporting from Amsterdam, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen mentioned Jetten confronted “severe challenges” as casual coalition talks obtained beneath approach, provided that his social gathering holds a razor-thin lead of solely 1000’s of votes over Wilders and his PVV Freedom Occasion.
Jetten, an enthusiastic athlete who as soon as ran as a pacemaker to Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, had mentioned there was no time to waste “as a result of the Dutch individuals are asking us to get to work”.
Wilders mentioned Jetten was leaping the gun, stating that the outcomes would solely change into official as soon as the Electoral Council, reasonably than ANP – which collects the outcomes from all municipalities within the Netherlands – had determined.
“How smug to not wait,” he wrote on X.
Though all mainstream events had already dominated out working with him, Wilders had mentioned he would demand to have a primary crack at forming a coalition if his social gathering was confirmed to have probably the most votes.
Though he noticed assist collapse, different far-right events just like the Discussion board for Democracy (FvD), a nationalist social gathering that desires to withdraw from the EU’s Schengen system of open borders, carried out effectively.
Affirmation of the outcome will come on Monday, when mail ballots solid by Dutch residents dwelling overseas are counted.
Occasion leaders will talk about the following steps on Tuesday.
