With eight days until Dutch voters go to the polls, the latest opinion poll shows the farmers’ party BBB has slipped to nine virtual seats, putting it at the head of a large chasing pack.

The poll by Ipsos for TV show EenVandaag gave the BBB three fewer seats than the previous edition on October 31 to put them level with the progressive-liberal D66, who have gained one.

The right-wing liberal VVD have a narrow lead over Pieter Omtzigt’s centre-right NSC, with both unchanged on 28 and 26 seats respectively. No party is projected to win more than 18% of the vote, with 16 parties in the frame to return at least one MP.

The left-wing partnership of Labour (PvdA) and GroenLinks are up by one seat on 23, while Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam PVV is unchanged on 17 in fourth place.

Behind D66 and the farmers come the animal rights party PvdD on seven, followed by the ChristenUnie and Socialist Party (SP) with five.

D66 won 24 seats at the last election in March 2021, when Caroline van der Plas entered parliament as the only MP for the farmers’ party. But in the provincial election in March the BBB took nearly 21% of the total vote and became the largest party in every province.

EenVandaag said that despite the lack of big shifts in voting behaviour lots could change in the final days of the campaign, with 40% of those surveyed saying they could still switch.