Overview
- The race finished neck‑and‑neck between D66 and Geert Wilders’ PVV, with no party topping one‑fifth of the vote and coalition talks expected to be complex and protracted.
- D66, led by Rob Jetten, almost tripled its vote share and is poised to finish narrowly first after running an upbeat, unifying campaign.
- Jetten’s message blended “yes we can” optimism and progressive patriotism with proposals like a more progressive inheritance and gift tax, curbs on the mortgage‑interest deduction, and a millionaires’ tax, drawing voters from GL/PvdA, NSC, VVD and even some former PVV supporters, according to Ipsos I&O.
- PVV underperformed relative to expectations and remains largely isolated after Wilders collapsed the previous government, with former partners signaling no return to his camp.
- EU implications loom large, as Jetten argues the Netherlands should wield its veto less and support deeper integration, a shift from the lower‑profile approach under technocrat Dick Schoof.