85% of votes counted; BBB & left-wing bloc to be biggest parties in Senate

With 85 percent of the votes counted, farmers’ party BBB and left-wing combination PvdA/GroenLinks are projected to become the biggest parties in the Senate. Both will get 15 seats, according to a prognosis by ANP. The VVD, currently the biggest party, will drop from 12 to 10 seats.

The D66 will get 6 seats (-1), the CDA 5 (-4), and ChristenUnie 3 (-1). That leaves the Rutte IV coalition with 24 seats in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, losing 8 seats.

PVV and PvdD will each get 4 seats, according to ANP. FvD and VOLT both stand on 2, and there is one seat each for SGP, 50Plus, and OSF.

The provisional results will likely change in the coming hours because several larger municipalities don’t have their votes counted yet. The count is going very slowly due to a higher-than-expected turnout and problems with the systems, according to NOS.

Several municipalities also stopped counting votes overnight because their counters were exhausted, the Ministry of Home Affairs told ANP. Mayors are allowed to pause the count to protect the people’s health.