The two parties leading the Dutch opinion polls, the right-wing Liberal VVD and Pieter Omtzigt’s centrist NSC, have swapped places in the latest EenVandaag survey.

The VVD are projected to win 27 seats, one more than in the last poll three weeks ago, while NSC drop two to 25. The general election is in eight weeks’ time on November 22.

The left-wing alliance of Labour (PvdA) and GroenLinks are in third place on 21 virtual seats, one more than last time.

On the current projection the three parties would be three seats short of a majority if they joined forces in a “grand coalition”. The ChristenUnie (5 seats), Christian Democrats (4), pro-European party Volt (3) or the hard-right JA21 (3) are among the parties that could supply the necessary votes.

Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam PVV has opened up a gap on the farmers’ party BBB in fourth place, with 18 seats compared to 13. In the previous survey the parties were level on 15 seats.

The four parties making up Mark Rutte’s caretaker cabinet would win just 44 seats according to the poll, with D66 falling from 10 virtual seats to nine.

The animal rights party PvdD, which has been engulfed in a leadership crisis for the last three weeks, is still on course to win seven seats, down two since the last poll.