a rise of the far right, 26 parties in the running, and an undecided vote

After the resignation of Mark Rutte in July, the Dutch legislative elections which are being held on Wednesday will choose a new Prime Minister. After a campaign dominated by a brand new centrist party, the far right has gained more and more momentum.

The Dutch are back at the polls. After 13 years in power, the coalition led by Mark Rutte fell in July 2023 and voters in the Netherlands choose their new Prime Minister on Wednesday November 22. To succeed him, a woman at the head of the center-right party, Dilan Yesilgoz, entered the race to lead the country. A tight race and a very volatile electorate: facing the two large traditional parties, that of Mark Rutte and the alliance of Greens and Socialists, a brand new centrist party was in the lead for a good part of the campaign, before to run out of breath slightly. Geert Wilders’ far right is rising in the polls.

Geert Wilders is one of the few known political figures from this campaign. He claims to have put his hatred of Islam on the back burner to focus on what he believes are more important things. The latest polls bring it closer to traditional parties such as the center-right, the liberal VVD Party, now in the hands of current minister Dilan Yesilgoz. Of Turkish origin, she arrived in the Netherlands as a child as a refugee but advocates a reduction in immigration.

Pieter Omtzigtthe third man

The joint list of socialists and ecologists is led by former European Commission heavyweight Frans Timmermans. Long given in mind, Pieter Omtzigt is the third man in this election. A political comet. The parliamentarian from the Christian Democrats only created his centrist party last August: the New Social Contract (NSC).

This 49-year-old polyglot with an elegant appearance says he himself is surprised by his success. “You are facing a party that had five members three weeks ago and now we have 7,000! he confides to franceinfo. We created this party less than three months ago, so yes, I am surprised myself that it is happening so quickly.” If he decided to create a new party, it is to restore confidence among citizens, according to him. He is riding on voters’ distrust of politics. “There are scandals which make it necessary to reform Dutch institutions and a more balanced balance between power and counter-powers”he assures.

Pieter Omtzigt’s promise to do politics differently is coupled with a program which draws a little to the right on immigration, but to the left on its social aspect. Caspar Veldkamp, ​​in fourth position on his list, believes that there is a bit of the macronism of 2017 in this new party where many candidates, like him who is a former diplomat, come from civil society. “In many countries, he explains, we have seen a crisis of democracy, in Italy, and even in France, where the traditional parties have lost many voters. We see the same process in the Netherlands. Before, voters looked for their solutions very far to the right and very far to the left, now they are looking to the center. And there, we are a new center-right party for certain things and center-left for others.”

This new party is therefore leading the race in the polls, alongside the two major traditional parties. Pieter Omtzigt should recover a good part of the votes which made the success in the last elections of the Citizen Farmer Movement (the BBB), this party opposed to the government’s ecological policy.

But with 26 parties in the running, including that of animals or pensioners, the fragmented Dutch political landscape will not make it possible to achieve a majority. The next Dutch government, still an influential player on the European scene, will only emerge after coalition negotiations that could last months.