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Voting by mail in a complex national election in the Netherlands dutch The centrist D66 party, based abroad, has won over the far-right party of anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders. party for freedom According to the final calculations of national news agency ANP.
The pair will have 26 seats in parliament, as D66’s gain of about 28,000 votes was not enough for the party to elect an additional lawmaker.
Using projections based on almost complete ballot counts and past patterns, the ANP had predicted that D66 would get the most votes but the question of the extra seat was not clear as of late Monday evening.
Speaking to reporters last week, Rob Jetten, the 38-year-old leader of D66, called the result a “historic result” and said he was proud but felt a “great responsibility” to the country.
Jetton will be the country’s youngest and first openly gay leader.
Despite finishing second, it resulted in a loss of 11 seats for Wilders’ party, known by its Dutch acronym PVV.
Two years ago, the PVV won a surprise victory over the far right for a nation once hailed as a symbol of tolerance. But the 62-year-old has lost support since forming and then toppling a four-party coalition that was notorious for infighting and which did not manage to agree on a tough package of measures to curb migration to the Netherlands.
Wilders reacted to the defeat by suggesting on social media that there may have been irregularities in the voting, a claim that has been widely condemned by the local municipalities that organize voting as well as the Electoral Council, the independent body that certifies election results. The council will formalize the results on Friday.
In the fragmented Dutch political landscape, forming a coalition is likely to take several weeks or months.
As the largest party, D66 will have the first shot at forming a government. Jetten and others will meet Tuesday to begin the process.