Dutch go to the polls for general elections

The voting process, which started at 07.30 local time (09.30 TSI) in the Netherlands, will last until 21.00 (23.00 TSI).

In the election, 1126 candidates and 26 parties are competing for 150 seats. 42 candidates of Turkish origin participated in the elections and no party is expected to reach the majority to form a government alone.

The first results of the election are expected to be announced late at night. The Dutch media will start publishing exit polls after the voting process is over. Official results will be announced at the earliest 8 days after the date of the elections.

After the results become official, government formation talks will begin. It is stated that the process in which the party with the highest number of deputies will propose to other parties to form a government may take days, weeks or even months. Previously, the government was formed in 229 days after the election in 2021, this process took 225 days in 2017, 208 days in 1977 and 54 days in 2012. In the country, which has been governed by coalition governments in recent years, a party must receive the support of at least 76 of the 150 deputies in parliament in order to form a government.

Islamophobic and far-right Wilders' party on the rise According to the latest polls, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), led by the interim government's Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, is expected to take the first place by winning 29 seats, although its votes declined compared to the previous elections. It is stated that the Freedom Party (PVV), led by the anti-Islam and far-right Geert Wilders, can increase the 17 seats it won in the 2021 election to more than 20. In the surveys, the Labour Party (PvdA) and the Green Left (Groen Links), which entered the elections as an alliance, follow the PVV with 24 seats. The New Social Contract Party (NSC), led by Pieter Omtzigt, who formed a new party by leaving the Christian Democratic Union (CDA), the coalition party in the current government, is expected to enter the parliament with around 20 seats. Among the coalition parties, the CDA is expected to win 4 seats, Democrats 66 (D66) 11 seats and the Christian Union Party (CU) 4 seats. It is observed that the parties in the coalition have not reached the total number of 76 seats, which is sufficient to form the government according to the survey. Denk Party, which fights against racism and discrimination in the Netherlands, is on the rise The Denk Party, which has been fighting against racism and discrimination and defending Palestinian rights since 2017, when it entered the House of Representatives in the Netherlands, is also participating in the election. The Denk Party, which is represented by 3 seats in the parliament and the majority of its members are Turks and immigrants, is competing with 46 candidates in this election. There are 26 candidates of Turkish origin in the Denk Party. According to the surveys, the Denk Party, which is expected to increase its votes, has the possibility of winning 4 seats. Yeşilgöz-Zegerius is open to coalition with the Islamophobic and far-right Wilders Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, Minister of Justice and Security of the interim government, whose family immigrated to the Netherlands from Turkey, leaves the doors open to a coalition with the PVV led by the anti-Islam and far-right Wilders. Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, who became the head of the VVD after the leadership of the Prime Minister of the interim government of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, supported the Dutch Parliament's resolution recognising the Armenian allegations regarding the 1915 events in 2018, when he was an MP from the VVD party. On the other hand, Yeşilgöz-Zegerius made history as the first justice minister in the country without legal education. The coalition government in the Netherlands, consisting of VVD, CDA, D66 and CU, resigned on 7 July 2023 due to disagreement on immigration policies.