Netherlands centrist D66 wins narrow election victory as far-right support collapses

The centre-left D66 party has won the Netherlands’ general election by a narrow margin, with leader Rob Jetten set to lead government formation talks after his party secured a 2,300-vote lead over the far-right Freedom Party (PVV).

“We have today achieved D66’s best ever result,” Jetten told jubilant supporters at the party’s election gathering in Leiden. “Millions of Dutch people have turned a page. They have said goodbye to the politics of negativity, of hate, of ‘it can’t be done.’”

Early general elections were held on 29 October 2025 to elect members of the House of Representatives. The snap election was called after the Schoof cabinet collapsed due to the Party for Freedom withdrawing from the coalition.

Elections had originally been expected in 2028.

After a night of vote counting, both D66 and the PVV were predicted to take 26 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament. However, D66 emerged with a narrow lead from the 10 million votes cast.

The results point to an open path for 38-year-old Jetten to form a government. He will be the youngest ever prime minister of the Netherlands and the first to be openly gay. His popularity surged in the past month as he campaigned on promises to resolve the housing shortage, invest in education, and tackle immigration concerns. The party has pledged to build 10 cities as part of its plan to address the housing crisis.

PVV leader Geert Wilders, however, has not conceded defeat. “As long as it’s not 100% clear, D66 can’t take the lead. We will do everything we can to prevent that,” he wrote on X. On Wednesday evening, Wilders said he was disappointed that his party had lost seats and was unlikely to be in the next government.

Wilders, one of Europe’s longest-serving populist leaders, is known for his anti-Islam stance and lives under constant protection due to death threats. Although he led his party to a first-place finish in the 2023 election, his proposals included denying all asylum requests, which would violate EU treaties, sending male Ukrainian refugees back to Ukraine, and halting development aid to finance energy and healthcare.

Once ballots are fully counted, the party with the largest share of votes will be asked to lead coalition negotiations, a process that typically involves multiple parties and can take months.