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Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders won the most votes in the general election and immediately vowed to curb immigration to the Netherlands to boost other nationalists and Eurosceptics across the EU.
Based on 98 percent of votes counted, ANP press agency forecasts predicted that Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) would win 37 seats, doubling its total after Wednesday’s vote.
Wilders said he would try to form a government, promising to stem an “asylum tsunami” and ensure that “the Dutch get their land back.” He added: “We cannot be ignored.”
Wilders’ party was followed by a left-wing alliance led by former EU climate chief Frans Timmermans with 25 seats and then the liberal VVD with 23.
His victory will send shockwaves through the EU, which is struggling to absorb migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
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Wilders also wants a referendum on leaving the EU. But the far-right politician, an anti-Islam activist who has vowed to ban the Koran and mosques, may struggle to find coalition partners for a governing majority in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.
Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, leader of the VVD, said she did not believe she would serve in a Wilders cabinet.
Center-right newcomer Pieter Omtzigt, a former Christian Democrat who only founded his New Social Contract party in August, has ruled out joining a cabinet with Wilders. NSC is expected to win 20 seats.
Some 26 parties ran in the elections and a poll by broadcaster NPO showed that 16 parties would enter parliament. Analysts said whoever wins will have to govern at least three other parties – a prospect that could see government-forming talks drag on for months and Prime Minister Mark Rutte continue in the role of caretaker.
Rutte’s government coalition failed in July because of plans to limit immigration by making it more difficult for asylum seekers to reunite with their families.
The election campaign was marked by migration, a housing crisis displacing young people and low-income families and environmental restrictions on agriculture in the densely populated country of 18 million.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius said the country could not cope with the volume of arrivals. Net immigration reached more than 220,000 in 2022, a tenfold increase within 20 years.
Omtzigt has proposed reducing the annual number to 50,000, including those from the EU who have the right to work anywhere in the bloc. Wilders has taken an even harder line but has abandoned his Islamophobic rhetoric in recent days.
Wilders still lives in a safe house and is under 24-hour security because of death threats.
A late surge in support for Wilders sparked a similar rise for Timmermans as left-wing voters sought to thwart a right-wing government. The former EU commissioner leads a joint Labor-Greens alliance, which the poll showed increased its presence by nine seats.
However, Timmermans will also find it difficult to form a government, as his closest ally, the progressive liberal D66 faction, is only expected to win nine seats.
In the Dutch system there is no minimum threshold for entering parliament, so there are a variety of political groups representing immigrants, from the Party for the Animals to Denk.
Read more about the Dutch election
