The liberal progressive party D66, led by Rob Jetten, and the right-wing PVV, led by Geert Wilders, are technically tied in the election results, according to the latest provisional projection from the Dutch agency ANPwith 99% of the votes counted.
The PVV managed to increase its advantage in votes after correcting the results of a small municipality and advancing the official count. However, the technical tie keeps in the air who will be the country’s first political force, the factor that determines which party will have priority to begin negotiations for the formation of the government.
Last night, exit polls showed D66 as the winner, with an advantage of two seats over the nationalist right, and, this Thursday (30), the progressives continue to be the victors of the electoral day, having won at least 17 more seats than in the previous elections.
Wilders, who even with a draw would be among the main losers of the election after losing 11 of the 37 seats he had so far, warned that he will not allow a D66 representative to start formation talks until there is “100% clarity” about which party won the elections.
“We will do everything possible to avoid this,” wrote the right-wing leader on social media this Thursday.
The results of several municipalities still need to be counted, in addition to the counting of votes abroad and in the Caribbean territories of Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, traditionally more favorable to D66. Furthermore, the remaining 20% of the votes in Amsterdam, where Jetten’s party has so far obtained 23.4% of the votes, will be incorporated during the week.
D66 consolidated its advance in large Dutch cities, being the party with the most votes in Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Tilburg and Groningen, and also registering advances in Amsterdam.
The PVV maintains its lead in the southern province of Limburg, although with significant losses compared to 2023: in Venlo, Wilders’ hometown, it fell from 36% to 27% of the vote.
Furthermore, the bloc of ecologists and social democrats GroenLinks-PvdA, which was led by Frans Timmermans until his resignation last night, remains with 20 seats; the VVD, from the conservative wing and led by Dilan Yesilgöz, drops to 22 seats, while Henri Bontenbal’s Christian Democrat CDA is left with 18.
The also right-wing Forum for Democracy (FvD) and Christian Union (CU) come in with 7 and 3, respectively. JA21 reaches 9 seats and the BBB agrarian movement, 4, while the Socialist Party (SP), Denk, the Party for the Animals (PvdD) and the SGP obtain 3 each.
Finally, the retirees’ party 50Plus gets 2, Volt, 1, and the centrist NSC, founded in 2023, would be left out of Parliament, after losing the approximately 20 seats it had until now.
Voter turnout stood at 78.4% this Wednesday, slightly above the 77.8% two years ago.
Taken together, the projection of ANPbased on real results and not on exit polls, confirms the extreme volatility of an electoral day in which polls already anticipated a tight result.
Awaiting the final count and official validation by the Electoral Council, scheduled for next week, the Netherlands is without a clear winner in one of the most disputed elections in its recent history: the difference between the two most voted parties has not been so small since 1956, the year in which the Chamber gained 150 seats.
