Party leaders to meet in Parliament as complicated formation process starts

After the unexpected outcome of the elections, political parties in The Hague must see whether they can form a majority coalition. Outgoing Tweede Kamer president Vera Bergkamp will receive the party leaders at the lower house of the Dutch parliament from 10:30 a.m. to discuss the election results and how to proceed with the Cabinet formation. The aim is to appoint a “scout” to investigate the available coalition options. All eyes will be on Geert Wilders’ PVV.

The PVV is the big winner of the election. Based on the provisional results, Wilders will soon have 37 seats in the Tweede Kamer, more than double what he had after the 2021 election. The PVV is the biggest party by some distance, so the other party leaders will explicitly expect Wilders to take the lead in the formation process. A fake PVV account on X claimed that Wilders appointed Kees van der Staaij of the Christian party SGP to be the scout, but Wilders quickly refuted it.

Achieving a majority will be a complex puzzle: many parties have little interest in cooperating with the PVV or even completely rule out government participation with Wilders.

In addition to the VVD, which kept the door open for Wilders this campaign, the key will lie mainly with Pieter Omtzigt’s NSC. His party won about 20 seats in one fell swoop. Omtzigt first said he could not govern with the PVV because of its program. But after the election results, the NSC leader said he wanted to get over himself. “There is a heavy responsibility on all politicians,” he said. The PVV itself stressed that other parties cannot ignore the voters’ signal and, therefore, cannot ignore the far-right populist party as a possible government partner.

When the scout has completed their work, and the final election results are known, a report will be submitted to the Tweede Kamer, followed by a parliamentary debate. That debate will take place as soon as possible after the installation of the new Tweede Kamer on December 6.