The most pro-EU party just won the Dutch election
D66 had a surprise surge, tripling their seats in yesterday's Netherlands election—and its openly gay leader Rob Jetten is set to become prime minister.
Almost exactly two years ago today, Europe was reeling from the shock news that Geert Wilders’ far-right People for Freedom (PVV) party had come first in the Dutch election. Wilders, who has in the past been banned from entering the UK because of his anti-Muslim rhetoric, has for decades been one of Europe’s most notorious far-right figures. And for the past two years, his PVV has been the largest in the Dutch governing coalition.
That experience of being in the government but without the premiership (his coalition partners insisted on the ‘technocrat’ Dick Schoof being prime minister) has done Wilders immense political harm. Yesterday, in a new election forced by Wilders pulling his party out of government, voters punished PVV and they lost a third of their 37 seats. On its face, it is a vindication for those who say ending the cordon sanitaire and letting the far right govern and fail is the best way to defeat them. But it’s a bit more nuanced than that - more on that below.
The big winner in yesterday’s vote was the liberal pro-EU D66 party. They increased from nine to 26 seats. Since all the centrist parties have ruled out being in a coalition with PVV (even the ones who were in government with them the past two years), Wilders has no route to do be part of the next government That means D66 leader Rob Jetten, a young openly-gay pro-European, will most likely be forming government and become prime minister.
The crowd was ecstatic at the D66 headquarters last night, as the erratic polls ahead of this election were anything but certain. They chanted the party’s slogan“het kan wél” (it is possible) with tears in their eyes. “We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands but also to the world that it’s possible to beat populist and extreme-right movements,” Jetten said. But, as ever in the Netherlands’ notoriously fragmented politics, he will have some tricky math to overcome. Also more on that below.