Far-right leader Geert Wilders has addressed cheering supporters.
In his first reaction to the exit poll, the PVV leader said he wanted to form a government.
“No party can ignore us any longer after we got 35 seats,” he declared.
Far right figures across Europe, from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to France’s Marine Le Pen, congratulated Wilders.
Exit polling showed Wilders’ Party for Freedom with the most seats, followed by the Green-Labour alliance, led by Frans Timmermans, with 25 seats.
The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, got 24 seats, according to the exit polling.
Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, leader of the VVD, was perfectly styled as ever but struggled on stage to maintain her optimism in a very short speech on election night.
“For us, the result is disappointing,” she said. “I think that it is big lesson to politicians. They haven’t listened enough to the people and haven’t offered enough workable solutions. We will no longer lead the way but I am incredibly proud of the party.”
She congratulated the “winners” of the election, Geert Wilders, Frans Timmermans, Pieter Omtzigt “and of course the other winners”.
She added:
We want to keep going from today. This is a new chapter, we will keep building with the lessons that we have learned, and we will build a Netherlands that we believe in.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius told Dutch media off stage it was unlikely the VVD would sit in a government under Wilders as prime minister.
“I have said that I don’t see that happening because Mr Wilders cannot form a majority,” she said. “But he has the lead, he is the big winner of the evening, and he needs to show if he can form a majority. I have said that I didn’t see that this country would have a leader who does not bring together all Dutch people, who is there for all of the Dutch, but above all I don’t see a majority forming”.
She denied that she had made a strategic error to open the door to Wilders, rather than excluding him as Mark Rutte had done for years.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “This is about the worries of people who don’t feel listened to.
This result clearly shows that the concerns of the voters that we have been hammering on for months, and that - not for nothing - the government fell over, are real. Politics in general hasn’t picked up on these worries and offered good solutions.
She did not express any regrets. “I thought it was a good campaign, we all did our best and the voter has spoken and that’s the good thing about democracy. Now Mr Wilders has the lead and we will see.”
The right wing block does not have appeared to grow much - from 62 seats to 63 votes, based on exit polling - but they have been concentrated on the PVV, Dutch political experts pointed out on the NOS.
To have a majority, a government needs 76 of 150 seats.
Geert Wilders’ far-right, anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) is on course to win the most seats in Dutch parliamentary elections, according to usually reliable exit polls, leaving the country facing months of fraught coalition negotiations.
The poll predicted Wilders’ party would win 35 seats in the 150-seat parliament, far ahead of a GreenLeft-Labour alliance (GL/PvdA) on 26 seats and the liberal-conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing prime minister Mark Rutte.
With no party scoring more than 25% of the vote, however, coalition negotiations could prove even longer and more complex than after the previous 2019 elections when four coalition partners took a record 271 days to hammer out an agreement.
Most parties, including GL/PvdA and NSC, have ruled out entering a coalition with the PVV, and while Rutte’s VVD – now headed by outgoing justice minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius – has been open to the idea, it will not accept Wilders as prime minister.
The shape of the new coalition could have a major impact on the Netherlands’ immigration and climate policies as well as relations with its European partners.
Read the full story here.
More photos from a surprising election night in the Netherlands.
French far right politician Marine Le Pen has congratulated Geert Wilders and the PVV.
“Their spectacular performance,” she said, “confirms the growing attachment to the defence of national identities”.
Minorities are concerned about the performance of Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom.
Muhsin Köktas of the Contact Body for Muslims and Government (CMO) wonders whether muslims still have a future in the Netherlands. “Everyone is talking about social security, but I don’t know if we still have it,” he said, NOS reported.
Caroline van der Plas, leader of the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), said she is happy with the 7 seats won and that with the party’s 16 senate seats, “no one can ignore us anymore”.
Alternative for Germany is also celebrating the Dutch exit polls.
“Everywhere in Europe, citizens want political change,” the German far right party wrote on social media.
More congratulations are pouring in from the European far right.
The Austrian Freedom Party’s Harald Vilimsky said “our political partners and friends are ahead almost everywhere”.
Rem Korteweg, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, points out that – based on the exit polling – a coalition of VVD, NSC, GL/PvdA and D66 would have one seat more than a coalition consisting of PVV, VVD and NSC.
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán was quick to offer his congratulations to far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
“The winds of change are here,” the Hungarian leader said.
A second exit poll is now available.
Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom is still at 35 seats in this poll.
The Green-Labour alliance, led by Frans Timmermans, has 25 seats, while the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, got 24 seats, according to the second poll.
This exit poll, unlike the first, includes voters who cast ballots in the last half hour of voting.
Far-right leader Geert Wilders has addressed cheering supporters.
In his first reaction to the exit poll, the PVV leader said he wanted to form a government.
“No party can ignore us any longer after we got 35 seats,” he declared.
Far right figures across Europe, from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to France’s Marine Le Pen, congratulated Wilders.
Exit polling showed Wilders’ Party for Freedom with the most seats, followed by the Green-Labour alliance, led by Frans Timmermans, with 25 seats.
The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, got 24 seats, according to the exit polling.
There’s a tangibly deflated mood at the GroenLinks-PvdA election party in Amsterdam following the announcement of the first exit poll that showed the far-right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders winning 35 seats, more than any other party.
GroenLinks-PvdA, an alliance between the two largest Dutch leftwing parties, GroenLinks (GL) and the Labour Party (PvdA), received 26 seats in the first exit poll.
“This is absolutely shocking. I don’t know what to say,” said Marc Schilderman, a longtime PvdA party member.
“I can’t believe almost a quarter of this country has voted for a party that goes against our constitutional rights,” he said, referring to Wilders’ pledges to shut down mosques and ban the Qur’an in the Netherlands.
Much will depend on a coalition-building process, with both the leader of GroenLinks-PvdA Frans Timmermans and the head of the socially liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, ruling out a government under Wilders.
“Let’s hope no one caves in and decides to form a coalition with Wilders. That way Timmermans can still become prime minister,” said Schilderman.
Tarik Abou-Chadi, an associate professor in European politics at the University of Oxford, says this evening that it’s “a watershed moment for liberal democracies”.
VVD members, in a packed room at the Fokker Terminal in The Hague, were shocked following the publication of a first exit poll showing the far right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders got the most seats, by a stretch.
“I expected the results to be closer together,” said Jelleke van Rantwijk, 44, from The Hague. “I thought the VVD would lose seats - that’s not a shock if you have been in power for 13 years. But the PVV is a shock: 35 votes versus 23. But nobody wants to go with him.”
Bart de Bart, 35, from The Hague, said: “It’s a feeling like when Trump won. We never expected it. The people who voted for him are the losers of globalism but he won’t do anything for them. If we close the borders, we will lose jobs.”
Manon Stevens, 49, from Breda, said: “It’s kind of historic. But how can he be the prime minister for Muslims? I’m very curious. There’s no rule that the biggest party is the prime minister. But I think this is the least clear result we have ever had.”
Martijn Kooijman, another VVD member, said: “To put it mildly, this is a disappointment. It’s only the exit poll: it’s not the count. I expected we would lose six seats but not this - this is a big drop. I hoped we would be bigger than GreenLeft/Labour.”
Would the VVD work in a Wilders government? “We can try it,” he said. “He does stand for something. It is what it is.”
In a surprise twist, the first exit poll shows the far-right Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders winning 35 seats, more than any other party.
We’re now waiting for results. But even if the exit polling is confirmed as accurate, much will depend on a coalition-building process.
Far right politician Geert Wilders has posted a video on social media as he celebrates the PVV winning the most seats, according to a first exit poll.
Here’s how other parties performed in the first exit poll, conducted by Ipsos:
D66: 10 seats
BBB: 7 seats
CDA: 5 seats
SP: 5 seats
PvdD: 4 seats
FvD: 3 seats
CU: 3 seats
SGP: 3 seats
Volt: 2 seats
Denk: 2 seats
JA21: 1 seat
50Plus: 1 seat
Voting has ended in the Netherlands. A first exit poll, conducted by the Ipsos research agency, shows the far right Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, got the most seats by a stretch.
However, the numbers may still shift during the evening as we wait for results, and much will now depend on a coalition-building process. Many parties have said they would not join a coalition with Wilders.
Here are the results of the exit poll:
Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders: 35 seats
Green-Labour alliance (GL/PvdA), led by Frans Timmermans: 26 seats
People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius: 23 seats
New Social Contract (NSC), led by Pieter Omtzigt: 20
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Dutch general election live: ‘no party can ignore us’, declares Geert Wilders after exit poll puts far-right party in front - The Guardian
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