THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Centrist Democrats 66, known as D66, has moved to start coalition-building after the Oct. 29 Dutch elections 2025 ended in a landmark tie with Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom, with both parties winning 26 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives, Dec. 30, 2025.
The near draw left neither bloc close to the 76 seats needed for a majority and forced mainstream parties to revisit a familiar question: whether they can assemble a stable, pro-European Union (EU) coalition without Wilders after he pulled his party out of the last government.
What the Dutch elections 2025 numbers mean
The final seat tally underscored the Netherlands’ splintered political landscape. D66 edged ahead in votes while tying the PVV in seats, a dead heat described by The Associated Press as a historic neck-and-neck finish. D66 posted its best-ever result, while the PVV was projected to lose seats compared with its 2023 breakthrough.
Tie at the top: D66 and PVV, 26 seats each (150 total).
Majority threshold: 76 seats in the lower house.
Coalition hurdle: No obvious governing bloc after the Dutch elections 2025.
The Dutch election authority, the Kiesraad, notes the most recent House election was held Oct. 29 — earlier than the regular cycle after the previous cabinet fell — and that the next scheduled election is in 2030.
Dutch elections 2025: The coalition math now
Government negotiator Sybrand van Haersma Buma said D66, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDA) and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, known as the VVD, would start trying to form a government together, according to Reuters. Together, the three parties would control 66 seats — 10 short of a majority — meaning they would need a fourth partner or attempt a minority cabinet that seeks support policy by policy. Adding the Greens-Labour alliance would deliver a majority, but the VVD has ruled out governing with that bloc, Reuters reported.
D66 leader Rob Jetten told Reuters he was “very confident” he could build a workable coalition and said the result sent “a very strong message” that centrist parties should work together. At 38, Jetten would be the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister if he can successfully complete the talks — and Reuters noted that D66’s strongly pro-EU stance could point to a more active Dutch role in Europe if it leads the next cabinet.
Negotiators have posted a rolling schedule of meetings and documents on the official cabinet-formation website, kabinetsformatie2025.nl, highlighting how technical — and time-consuming — coalition-building can be after the Dutch elections 2025.
How the Dutch elections 2025 fit the recent political arc
The tie caps a turbulent stretch in Dutch politics. Wilders’ PVV scored a shock victory in the 2023 parliamentary election, AP reported, and months of bargaining eventually produced a right-wing coalition led by independent Prime Minister Dick Schoof.
The Schoof government was sworn in in July 2024, with PVV ministers taking office for the first time, Reuters reported. But the cabinet lasted less than a year before the PVV withdrew in a dispute over asylum and migration measures, triggering a collapse that Time documented as the catalyst for the snap election that led to the Dutch elections 2025 deadlock.
For voters, the Dutch elections 2025 outcome offers both a warning and an opening: the far right remains a potent force, but D66’s surge suggests there is still space for a centrist, explicitly pro-EU pitch. The next coalition — whether majority or minority — will determine how quickly the Netherlands moves from the Dutch elections 2025 stalemate to a governing agenda on housing, migration and the cost of living.
