By Stephanie van den Berg and Bart H. Meijer
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The Netherlands’ next government looks likely to exclude the far right and could be led by an openly gay prime minister after an election in which Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party lost ground and support surged for the centrist D66.
With 98% of votes counted from Wednesday’s election, D66 and Wilders’ PVV were tied early on Thursday, with both projected to take 26 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
All major mainstream parties have ruled out governing with Wilders after he brought down the last coalition, which was led by his own party. This leaves him no viable path to a majority.
Cheers and chants of “Yes, we can” broke out at the D66’s election-night celebration as a crowd waved Dutch flags.
“We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands, but also to the world that it is possible to beat populist and extreme-right movements,” D66 leader Rob Jetten told the crowd.
“Millions of Dutch people today turned a page and said farewell to the politics of negativity, of hate, of endless ‘No we can’t’.”
For Wilders, Wednesday’s outcome was a sharp fall from the 37 seats the anti-immigration VVP won in the previous election in 2023.
The Dutch election was seen as a test of whether the far-right can expand its reach or whether it has peaked in parts of Europe. The outcome may suggest there are limits to its enduring appeal.
TOUGH COALITION TALKS AHEAD
Parties will start looking ahead to talks for the composition of the next government. But with less than 3,000 votes between the top two, it could take days for a winner to emerge. That could delay coalition talks.
Traditionally, the party with the most votes is first tasked by parliament with trying to form a government.
On Wednesday evening, exit polls and early results had indicated a narrow victory for the progressive D66, with Wilders’ party trailing in second place. But vote counting later indicated a slightly stronger showing for PVV.
The shift in the early hours of Thursday was unlikely to alter the composition of the next government coalition, and the result seemed to open a path for D66 leader Jetten to form a government as the Netherlands’ youngest prime minister.
WILDERS SAYS IT’S NOT OVER YET
“I’m very excited that we’re going to have the first homosexual prime minister in the Netherlands and also one that is combining all the positive forces,” Lotte van Slooten, a 25-year-old voter, said at the D66 rally.
Wilders said he would take the lead in forming a government if the PVV ultimately came out on top.
“As long as it’s not 100% clear, D66 can’t take the lead. We will do everything we can to prevent that,” he said in a post on X.
Vote counting was under way in areas including parts of Amsterdam, which is more favourable to D66, but also in the Limburg area, which tends to favour PVV more.
Results from the Dutch Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba could also make a marginal difference in the final tally. In 2023, D66 bested VVD there by about 1,400 votes.
(Additional reporting by Toby Sterling, Writing by Ingrid Melander, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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