Dutch election: D66 and PVV neck and neck with smallest difference ever

With almost all the votes counted for the 2025 Dutch general election, it is neck and neck between Rob Jetten’s D66 and Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV). There are just a mere few thousand votes between the two parties, the closest call in Dutch history, which means they have each won 26 out of 150 seats. 

Smallest difference in votes for Dutch election ever recorded

D66 and PVV are on equal footing at 26 seats each, with Geert Wilders’ PVV taking a slight lead with around 1.300 votes, at 99,6 percent of votes counted. Despite this, Rob Jetten appears on the front of newspapers this morning and is seen as the winner of this year’s election campaign.

Because there is such a narrow margin, it could be days before the largest party is revealed, reports NOS. Postal votes from Dutch citizens living abroad still need to be counted and the results will only be tallied by Monday, November 3 at the earliest. 

Just behind the leading parties is the Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led by Dilan Yeşilgöz, with 22 seats, followed by GroenLinks-PvdA with 20 seats and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) with 18. According to AD, this is also the first time so many parties held fewer than five seats, showing how torn people in the Netherlands are. Voter turnout was slightly better than the 2023 elections at around 78,4 percent.

Difficult coalition negotiations lie ahead for the Netherlands

While Wilders is still holding out hope that his is the largest party, it might not matter as the PVV will most likely still not hold the majority of seats. All the major parties have also said that they would not be willing to form a cabinet with PVV, which means Jetten could become the Dutch prime minister by default.

This also means that the foundation of the new cabinet will probably include D66 and CDA, with VVD likely also being included. The biggest chance of having a majority would be to add GL-PvdA as well, but this will take some convincing to get VVD to agree. 

D66 leads in majority of large Dutch cities

While PVV might have a slight lead across the country, many of the larger Dutch cities voted for the D66. In Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Eindhoven, the D66 won the highest share of the vote, while GL-PvdA remained the largest in Amsterdam.

It is clear that support for Wilders’ PVV has plummeted, after losing 11 of the 37 seats won in the 2023 elections. D66 and CDA made the biggest improvement, gaining 17 and 13 seats respectively, while VVD and GL-PvdA lost two and five seats respectively. Volt and New Social Contract (NSC) will disappear from parliament, no longer gathering enough votes to hold any seats. 

After the first exit poll results that showed GL-PvdA had lost seats, leader of GL-PvdA Frans Timmermans resigned, stating that he was disappointed that he could not convince enough people to vote for the party. “As leader, I will take responsibility for that,” he said. “It is time for me to step back and give the leadership to the next generation. That is what a leader should do.”

What does this mean for internationals in the Netherlands?

If PVV does manage to make it into the cabinet, cracking down on migration will unsurprisingly be one of the top priorities. Wilders described PVV’s manifesto as a programme of resistance against “mass immigration and Islamisation”. Along with turning refugees away and closing asylum centres, the far-right party also wants to ban dual nationality and extend the term for naturalisation from 5 years to 15. Wilders also wants to cap grocery prices and remove the 385 euro deductible for health insurance.

On the opposite side, if the progressive liberal D66 takes office, the party would work towards protecting labour migrants from exploitation in certain job sectors, while encouraging asylum seekers to integrate into Dutch society sooner by encouraging them to learn Dutch. Asylum applications would be processed outside the EU so anyone without pre-approval would not be admitted into the country. Jetten also wants to reintroduce subsidies for electric cars, and include dental checks in the basic health insurance package while keeping the deductible at 385 euros.