site.btaExit Poll Shows Surprising Winner in Netherlands Early Parliamentary Elections

The Democrats 66 party will be the leading force in the new parliament of the Netherlands after the early parliamentary elections in the country, according to an exit poll published on Wednesday evening. The results put the party first with 27 seats out of the total 150 in the House of Representatives (lower house). The party has gained as many as 18 MPs compared to the previous elections in November 2023.

In second place is the Party for Freedom with 25 MPs, followed by the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy with 23, while in fourth place are GroenLinks-PvdA with 20 MPs. The Christian Democratic Appeal party will have 19 MPs, according to the exit poll.

All opinion polls during the campaign for the snap elections in the Netherlands had pointed to a victory for the far-right Party for Freedom, which won the previous elections. Only on Tuesday did the surveys show that the five parties that are now the top forces in the new parliament were close to one another.

Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders triggered these snap elections: at the beginning of June, he plunged the country into a political crisis by withdrawing his ministers from the ruling coalition over a dispute concerning migration measures.

The forecasts that the new parliament would again include 15 parties, as in the previous one, have come true. There is, however, one difference: the New Social Contract party, which previously had 20 MPs, is dropping out; 50Plus is re-entering with 2 MPs. A total of 27 parties took part in the elections.