D66 Surge Stalls Wilders, Final Counts Pending

The snap Dutch election produced a shock surge for centrist, social‑liberal Democrats 66 (D66) under Rob Jetten, leaving D66 and Geert Wilders’s far‑right Party for Freedom (PVV) projected to be neck‑and‑neck at about 26 seats each in the 150‑seat House. The PVV fell from 37 seats in 2023 (a loss of roughly 11 seats), reflecting voter rejection of Wilders’s anti‑Islam and anti‑migration agenda and his polarizing rhetoric. All major mainstream parties have said they will not govern with Wilders, leaving him with no viable path to a majority and positioning Jetten to lead coalition talks and to be a strong contender to become the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister. Forming a stable coalition is expected to be complicated and may take months. Officials cautioned the margin between the parties was very narrow — under about 2,000 votes in some tallies — and remaining domestic and overseas ballots could shift the ultimate balance, with final results possibly taking days or weeks.