Dutch centrist D66 party wins big in election as Wilders loses support

By Bart H. Meijer, Toby Sterling and Anthony Deutsch

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -The centrist D66 party made huge gains in Dutch elections likely giving it the lead in the formation of the next government, as the party of far-right leader Geert Wilders lost support.

With 98% of votes counted early on Thursday, D66 and Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) were both projected to take 26 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

After a night of vote counting, D66 was holding a narrow lead of 2,300 votes of the total of around 10 million votes cast. Counting is set to resume on Thursday morning.

D66 made the biggest gains and almost tripled its seats, while Wilders' party suffered a sharp fall from a record showing in the last poll in 2023.

Exit polls and early results had indicated a narrow victory for the progressive D66, with Wilders' party trailing in second place. But vote counting indicated a slightly stronger showing for the anti-Islam populist party.

The shift in the early hours of Thursday is unlikely to alter the composition of the next government coalition.

All major mainstream parties have ruled out governing with Wilders after he brought down the last coalition led by his PVV, leaving him no viable path to a majority.

The result instead seems to open a path for D66 leader Rob Jetten to form a government as the youngest ever prime minister of the Netherlands.

But Wilders early on Thursday insisted he would take the lead if the PVV would 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.

Wilders on Wednesday evening had said he was disappointed that his party had lost seats and was unlikely to be in the next government.

D66 CELEBRATES

Cheers and chants of "Yes, we can" broke out at the D66 election night celebration as the 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," 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'."

The popularity of 38-year-old Jetten surged in the past month, as he campaigned on a promise to resolve a housing shortage, invest in education, and tackle immigration concerns.

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. He had proposed denying all asylum requests - which would violate EU treaties - sending male Ukrainian refugees back to Ukraine, and halting development aid in order to finance energy and healthcare.

Wilders led his party to a stunning first-place finish in the 2023 election and formed an all-conservative coalition, although his partners refused to endorse him as prime minister. He brought the government down in June over its refusal to adopt his hardline measures.

TOUGH COALITION TALKS

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.

With 76 seats needed to form a governing coalition in the Netherlands' parliament, at least four parties will be required. One scenario is a pact including D66, the conservative Christian Democrats, the centre-right VVD, and the Greens-Labour party.

However, building stable coalitions is tough and talks are expected to take months.

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch, Toby Sterling and Bart Meijer. Additional reporting by Stephanie van den Berg, Suban Abdulla, Marta Fiorin and Charlotte Van Campenhout. Editing by Toby Chopra, Rosalba O'Brien, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry)