Dutch centrist Rob Jetten claims victory over Wilders in neck-and-neck election race

Centrist liberal leader Rob Jetten has claimed victory in Wednesday’s nail-biting Dutch election, after vote analysis indicated his party could not be beaten by anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders.

Jetten’s D66 party currently has a narrow lead of 15,000 votes over Wilders’ Freedom Party, and Dutch news agency ANP says even though the vote count is not complete, Wilders can no longer win.

“We are the biggest party in the Netherlands! Now we’ll get to work for all Dutch people,” Jette posted on X.

Projections from about 99% of the vote put both parties on 26 seats in the 150-seat parliament – but ANP says Jetten’s centrists could win a 27th seat.

Jetten, 38, told reporters he was “very proud of this historic result” and now felt a great responsibility to form a stable and ambitious government.

Wilders had led opinion polls going into Wednesday’s election, but Rob Jetten succeeded in winning in some of the main Dutch cities including Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht with a positive campaign using a catchphrase of “Yes, we can”.

No Dutch election race has ever been so close, and if Jetten does become prime minister he will be the youngest in Dutch history.

Until now Jetten was careful not to declare victory until all votes were in, but ANP said based on figures from postal voters abroad he could now be declared the winner.

Jetten told reporters that his party had “shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message”.

Although his path to forming a coalition is not straightforward, Jetten has said he wants to make a quick start.

Jetten said after the vote that never before had a party won a Dutch election with fewer than 30 seats.

He will need the support of at least three other parties to gather the 76 seats needed to form a coalition. The most obvious candidates would be the conservative-liberal VVD, the left-wing Labour (PvdA)-GreenLeft alliance and the Christian Democrats, but it could take months if that is to happen.

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz has so far ruled out working with the left, but Jetten said he favoured a broad-based government from the centre of Dutch politics.

The weekend would be a good chance for all the parties to reflect, before a “scout” is given the task next Tuesday of sounding them out.

Jetten said he wanted to construct a coalition that represented best the millions of voters who had backed other parties to tackle the main issues, including the housing shortage and asylum and migration.

Outgoing Prime Minister Dick Schoof predicted on Friday that Jetten’s task would prove complicated. “I reckon I’ll still be prime minister at Christmas – I’d be surprised if it happened [by then]”.

Schoof, a former chief of Dutch intelligence, was picked for the top job by Geert Wilders, who abandoned his hope of leading the country because his prospective coalition partners would not support having a far-right prime minister.

Wilders won the last election in November 2023, and a government was only formed in July 2024. Eleven months later, he brought his own government down, in a row with his coalition partners over asylum and migration policy.