Dutch centrists heading for power as far right slumps, exit poll suggests

The liberal-progressive D66 party was last night on track to become the largest in the Dutch parliament, according to an exit poll, after a snap general election in which the far right was seen losing a third of its seats.

- Jon Henley

The poll, with a oneto two-seat margin of error, gave the centrist party an estimated 27 MPs in the 150-seat assembly, possibly clearing a path for its leader, Rob Jetten, 38, to become the Netherlands' youngest and first out gay prime minister.

The result, if confirmed, would mark a historic comeback for the almost 60-year-old party, which won just nine seats in the 2023 election, and a serious setback for the Freedom party (PVV) of Geert Wilders, forecast to slump from 37 MPs to 25.

Jetten's resolutely optimistic, high-energy campaign struck a chord with Dutch voters disillusioned by two years of a fractious, ineffectual four-party PVV-led conservative coalition government that spent most of its time infighting and achieved little.

"My message to everyone is that if we run on positive platforms ... it's possible to defeat the populists and to work together with the broad middle and centrist parties to deliver real results," Jetten had said after casting his vote in The Hague.

Under the proportional Dutch system, 0.67% of the vote yields one MP, a bar that was cleared by 15 of the 27 parties contesting the election, which included parties for the over-50s, for youth, for animals, for a universal basic income and for sport.