Dutch liberals look set for power after knife-edge election

Geert Wilders is almost certain to be shut out of the next Dutch government after a knife-edge general election in which support for his far-right Freedom party (PVV) slumped and the liberal-progressive D66 party made spectacular gains.

- Jon Henley Europe correspondent

With 99.7% of ballots counted, the two parties were neck and neck on a projected 26 seats each in the 150-seat parliament, with D66 an estimated 15,000 votes ahead after the capital, Amsterdam, declared preliminary results yesterday.

“It’s incredibly tense,” D66’s 38-year-old leader, Rob Jetten, who is in pole position to become prime minister, told reporters. “We have to wait for the next few hours - or more like days - for the final results.” But, he added, he was “very confident” of being able to form a new coalition government.

The nail-biting finish has already led to a delay in the start of coalition talks, with a meeting of party leaders to appoint a “scout” - the official traditionally appointed by the largest party to sound out possible coalitions - postponed until Tuesday.

An estimated 90,000 votes from Dutch nationals living abroad, who traditionally favour D66 over the PVV, may not be fully counted until late on Monday. But even if Wilders’s PVV party does edge ahead, he appears to have no viable route to a majority.