Dutch elections: PVV overtakes D66 with both parties projected to take 26 seats
Geert Wilders’ PVV moved ahead of Rob Jetten’s D66 on Thursday morning in the preliminary results of the Dutch parliamentary elections. As it stands, the two parties will each win 26 seats.
In a neck-and-neck competition, the centrist-liberal D66 had held a narrow lead of a few thousand votes over the far-right PVV, but has now been overtaken. As of 10:30 on Thursday, 99.7 per cent of ballots had been counted and the difference between the two was 2,341 votes.
In Amsterdam, 20 per cent of the votes still need to be processed and the final results from the capital will not be available until Friday evening.
With 80 per cent of Amsterdam’s votes counted, GroenLinks-PvdA is leading on 27.4 per cent. D66 follows with 23.4 per cent, while the PVV is at 7.3 per cent. A spokesperson for the city said there would be no further updates in the interim.
Overseas votes
The 136,272 postal votes from abroad will not be officially determined until Tuesday, and votes from the overseas territories of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean also need to be counted.
Based on preliminary results, this will be the first time in history that the largest party in the Netherlands has to settle for fewer than 30 seats in the House of Representatives.
Until now, the lowest record was held by the right-wing liberal VVD, which won 31 seats as the largest party in 2010.
If PVV takes 26 seats, it will represent a loss of 11 on its previous total. It took seven months for Wilders to reach a deal with coalition partners in 2024, only for the government to fall 11 months later.
Coalition formation
A score of 30 seats corresponds to about 20 per cent of the votes. The fact that no party is expected to exceed this threshold also threatens to complicate the formation of a coalition. Based on the exit polls, at least four parties will be needed for a majority of 75+1 seats in the House of Representatives.
After the exit polls were announced, D66 leader Rob Jetten told public broadcaster NOS that cooperation with GroenLinks-PvdA would be a “very logical option for the coalition”, “if you look purely at the number of seats won”.
Another potential partner is the Christian democrats CDA, who took just a handful of seats last time and are now projected to win 18.
Increased turnout
Turnout on Wednesday was slightly higher than in 2023, according to figures from the election service of the Dutch press agency ANP. 78.4 per cent of eligible people voted, compared to 77.8 per cent last time.
Unlike in Belgium, voting in the Netherlands is not compulsory, and participation has fluctuated over the past few decades. The highest peak in recent history was in 2017, when 81.9 per cent of people cast their vote. The lowest point was in 1998, when more than a quarter of people chose not to vote.
Tellers open ballots papers to count votes the morning after the Dutch parliamentary election in Amsterdam, 30 October 2025 © PHOTO DINGENA MOL / ANP / AFP
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