Far-Right Dutch Party Loses Support; Centrist Rob Jetten Wins Big

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The Dutch national election was held on 29 October 2025, called early after Dick Schoof’s cabinet collapsed due to the Party for Freedom (PVV) withdrawing from the coalition.

Rob Jetten, leader of the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D66), narrowly beat Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right PVV.  D66 won 16.9% of the vote compared to the PVV’s 16.7%. This was a comeback for D66, as the party almost tripled its number of seats from only nine in 2023 to 26 in 2025, On the other hand, support for PVV declined, reflected in their fall from 37 seats in 2023 to 26 in 2025.

The driving factor leading to D66’s victory was a campaign that focused on tackling the housing shortage and pledged to invest in education and healthcare. The campaign was much more optimistic and policy-focused than the 2023 election, when immigration dominated political debate in the Netherlands and the PVV primarily won by pushing hard on asylum issues.

The result is historically significant: At 38, Rob Jetten may become the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay Prime Minister - a development that has attracted wide attention in both Dutch and international coverage. Jetten himself described the outcome as proof to the world that populist and far-right movements can be beaten.

That said, it would be inaccurate to state that the Dutch far right has been decisively defeated. For now, Rob Jetten still needs to conduct coalition talks, a notoriously long process, before he can officially step into the role of Prime Minister.

Moreover, far-right ideas still remain influential and have by now been deeply embedded in Dutch politics, with elements of the PVV language regarding immigration being adopted by centrist parties. Its policies continue to shape aspects of Dutch political debate, despite now having less electoral power.