Centrist liberals lead in tight Dutch election – exit poll
Dutch pro-EU centrist party D66 is on course to win a national election in the Netherlands, opening a path for the energetic leader Rob Jetten to become the Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister, an exit poll showed on Wednesday.
D66 is set to win 27 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, beating far-right leader Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, on course to get 25 seats.
The exit poll has a margin of error of up to three seats.
The highly divisive nationwide vote was called following the collapse of the government this summer. The PVV has seen its popularity dwindle ahead of the election, with its closest competitor, the GreenLeft-Labour alliance, showing a similar performance in the latest opinion polls.
Over half of the country’s voters remained undecided on whom they would back at the ballot boxes on the eve of the election, multiple surveys have indicated. The country’s data protection watchdog warned people against relying on the help of chatbots to make their choice, claiming AI tools often provide a “highly distorted and polarized view” of politics.
“This directly impacts a cornerstone of democracy: the integrity of free and fair elections. We therefore urge voters not to use AI chatbots for voting advice because their operation is neither transparent nor verifiable,” Monique Verdier, deputy chair of the watchdog, said in a statement last week.
The Dutch ruling coalition collapsed this June when the PVV withdrew after its partners refused to accept a hairline immigration overhaul proposed by Wilders. His allies had earlier claimed to support what Wilders described as the “strictest migration policy ever” in the Netherlands.
“I signed up for the toughest asylum policy and not the downfall of the Netherlands,” Wilders stated after his party bailed on the coalition.
