Dutch voters headed to the polls in late October for a closely watched election worldwide, delivering a narrow victory for Rob Jetten. He is likely to become the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister.
Rob Jetten’s centre-left D66 has found itself neck and neck with Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV), both tied at 26 seats in the 150-member parliament. Each party secured just under 17% of the vote.
The centre-right VVD won 22 seats, followed by the Green Left Labour Alliance and the Christian Democrats. The two outgoing coalition parties, the BBB and the NSC, suffered heavy losses, revealing that the PVV’s brief time in power had tarnished its right-wing coalition partners.
Meanwhile, Jetten’s D66 experienced a remarkable resurgence, having plummeted to just nine seats in the 2023 general election only two years earlier.
Rob Jetten, 38, took his party from fifth place to the top of Dutch politics through a relentlessly upbeat campaign. The former climate minister, once labelled by critics as “Robot Jetten” for his scripted and robotic style, dominated TV debates and seized every media opportunity, promoting his optimistic slogan “Het kan wel” (It is possible), echoing Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” slogan.
Jetten smartly expanded D66’s traditional climate and education platform to address voter anxiety over migration and housing. His proposals include building ten new cities and implementing a new asylum policy. Jetten could become the Netherlands’ first openly gay prime minister and is engaged to Argentine hockey player Nicolás Keenan.
But victory does not guarantee governing. Jetten needs at least three coalition partners to reach the 76-seat majority needed to form a government, a process requiring negotiation. He has expressed the desire for a broad political centre coalition, mentioning the CDA, VVD and GroenLinks-PvdA.
Rob Jetten, 38, took his party from fifth place to the top of Dutch politics through a relentlessly upbeat campaign.
Jetten remained defiant about what his victory represents: “We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands but also to the world that it is possible to beat populist and extreme right movements,” he declared.
The challenge is now whether he can build a functioning coalition.
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