The progressive-liberal party D66 has widened its lead over the far-right PVV in the Dutch national elections, after counting postal votes from abroad, but each is still projected to secure 26 seats in parliament.
Results published by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS show that GroenLinks-PvdA received the largest share of overseas votes, 29.1%. D66 followed with 18.6%, while PVV secured 8.6%.
This latest count confirms D66’s lead over Geert Wilders’ PVV, with a difference of 28,455 votes. Despite this gap, Dutch news agency ANP forecasts that the two parties will remain tied at 26 parliamentary seats.
The postal ballots were the last to be counted for the parliamentary elections, concluding the release of preliminary results. However, final outcomes may slightly differ from these figures, according to the country’s Electoral Council, which announced the official results on Friday.
Leaders from the 15 parties set to enter parliament are scheduled to meet on Tuesday to begin discussions on coalition formation. As the largest party, D66 will take the lead in negotiations.
D66’s party leader, Rob Jetten, stated on Friday that he intends to appoint a mediator “capable of balancing all interests.”
RTL Nieuws reported that former minister Wouter Koolmees, a D66 parliamentarian and current CEO of Dutch railway company NS, is being considered for the role.
