The far right PVV, which wants to close the borders to all immigration, a Nexit and to “de-Islamise” the Netherlands, is the big winner in the Dutch general election. The shock result, which had not been predicted, saw the party seize almost 25% of the vote with 98% of votes counted, doubling its support from 2021.

PVV leader Geert Wilders told a cheering crowd at a Scheveningen cafe that the general election results show that the voters of the Netherlands have had enough. “The Dutchman will be back in first place,” he said. “The Netherlands has hope… the people of the Netherlands will get their country back and the tsunami of refugees and immigrants will be limited.”

At the same time, he said, the result is an enormous responsibility and the party had to do its best to make sure the hopes of the people of the Netherlands are realised. “We will have to work together with other parties,” he said. “We cannot be ignored.”

The GroenLinks/PvdA alliance, led by former European commissioner Frans Timmermans, has won 25 seats, adding eight to the two parties’ current total. It was also the biggest party in Amsterdam, Groningen, Leeuwarden and Utrecht, where the PVV traditionally has little support.

The VVD, which had seemed the sure winner, is in third place, with 24 seats.

Timmermans vowed to “defend democracy” in an emotionally charged speech, immediately after congratulating Geert Wilders on his victory. Timmermans roared over the noise of a cheering crowd: “We will defend the rule of law. The rule of law is sacred to us.”

Plea to supporters

He began his speech with a plea to his supporters to look out for each other. “Hold each other close. We don’t let anyone go in the Netherlands,” he said. “If in the coming days, in your neighbourhood, at school, at work, you come across people who ask after tonight: ‘Do I still belong here?’ then tell them: ‘Yes’.

“And do me a favour and say immediately: GroenLinks-PvdA has formed this partnership so we can say to you: ‘We’ve got your back’. In the Netherlands everyone is equal. It doesn’t matter where your crib stood, your parents’ crib or your grandparents’ crib. You absolutely belong.”

Rob Jetten, leader of D66, said that despite Wilder’s efforts to appear milder in his campaign, “his extreme ideas are still there in the background”. D66 won nine seats, well down on its current total of 24 but better than had been forecast.

However, Jetten said, the VVD is also to blame. The party chose to allow the coalition to collapse in the summer “over the backs of refugees”.  The VVD has “opened the door” to the PVV by normalizing the politics of intolerance”.

Groningen University political scientist Leonie de Jonge told NOS that Jetten was right to partly blame the VVD. “The VVD let the cabinet fall over migration, but that theme has been claimed by the PVV and people prefer the original,” she said.

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz denied her party had made a “tactical error” by dropping Mark Rutte’s refusal to work with Geert Wilders’s party. “I don’t think so. We’ve said the whole time that this is about the concerns of people who don’t feel listened to,” she told NOS. “If you keep ignoring them, the cabinet didn’t fall for no reason, then this is what you get. That’s the issue here.”

With 98% of the votes counted, the new lower house of parliament is set to look like this, with the parties’ 2021 results in brackets.

VVD: 24 (34)
PVV: 37 (17)
GL/PvdA: 25 (17)
NSC: 20 (0)
D66: 9 (24)
CDA: 5 (15)
BBB: 7 (1)
Volt: 2 (3)
PvdD: 4 (6)
ChristenUnie: 3 (5)
SGP: 3 (3)
FvD: 3 (8)
SP: 5 (9)
Denk: 3 (3)
JA21: 1 (3)
BVNL: 1
50+ 0: (1)
BIJ: 0 (1)

Catch up on the rest of Wednesday evening’s events with a look back at our live blog.

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