Dutch elections 2025

[s1962a]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/29/exit...

Well this is a bit of a shock, the centrist party run by Jetten seems to be making more gains than the anti-immigration one by Wilders.

[DeejRC]

Well nobody overly expected much. Everybody else had declared they won’t work with Wilders now. The centrists renewed themselves under this younger, media, tv, pop culture savvy leader and he focussed the campaign around the actual biggest problem in NL: bonkers housing. Take the UK housing situation/market and make it 10x worse…that’s the NL housing situation.

Now, quite how he delivers on “10 new cities” the Lord alone knows, but I wish him luck. Dutch politics can be even more local cross fighting than British!! As always, my support remains for the Pirate Party, aaarrrggghh!

[s1962a]

Thats an interesting insight - aren't they worried about immigration and all the similar issues we're facing in the UK?

[parabolica]

DeejRC said:

Now, quite how he delivers on 10 new cities the Lord alone knows, but I wish him luck. Dutch politics can be even more local cross fighting than British!! As always, my support remains for the Pirate Party, aaarrrggghh!

They managed something similar back in the 80s; very different times obviously but there are ways to do it. I've spent most of 2025 off & on looking at buying a house here (far east of NL, right up near the German border) and the competition in purchasing something is off the scale - not unusual to see the winning bids be 50-75% above the asking price.

[MG CHRIS]

s1962a said:

Thats an interesting insight - aren't they worried about immigration and all the similar issues we're facing in the UK?

More than likely not as there are more issues to focus on over beating the rather boring immigration drum over and over and over again. Ironically this was what cost reform the recent by election in Caerphilly cause all they talked about was immigration in a area with one of the lowest immigration stats in the country.

[Gargamel]

s1962a said:

Thats an interesting insight - aren't they worried about immigration and all the similar issues we're facing in the UK?

Well they were, Wliders build a 20 year reputation on being anti Islam - of course when he actually won an election - he discovered the coalition parties wouldn't help him close mosques or ban the burqa.

He brought down his own government, so a lot of people deserted him this time. Immigration is a concern - for sure, but the Dutch are pretty sensible - Economy, housing, opportunities for the young people much more important.

The rise of D66 is the real story, lots of folks who have voted VVD for a long time defected this time as the VVD have lurched to the right in an attempt to steal votes from Wilders. So of course the centrists have all defected.

Interesting times - in another 6 months they could even have a government !

[captain_cynic]

MG CHRIS said:

s1962a said:

Thats an interesting insight - aren't they worried about immigration and all the similar issues we're facing in the UK?

More than likely not as there are more issues to focus on over beating the rather boring immigration drum over and over and over again. Ironically this was what cost reform the recent by election in Caerphilly cause all they talked about was immigration in a area with one of the lowest immigration stats in the country.

This.

And the UK needs to do the same or were going to end up as bad as the US or possibly worse.

The UK has far bigger issues that ate being ignored because all the airtime is going to extremists on Immigration.

The Dutch elected Wilders last time and decided not to repeat the mistake again. They're looking at Jetten as a return to the kind of pragmatic government they had under Rutte.

[JagLover]

Gargamel said:

Well they were, Wliders build a 20 year reputation on being anti Islam - of course when he actually won an election - he discovered the coalition parties wouldn't help him close mosques or ban the burqa.

He brought down his own government, so a lot of people deserted him this time. Immigration is a concern - for sure, but the Dutch are pretty sensible - Economy, housing, opportunities for the young people much more important.

It looks like it collapsed over immigration restrictions rather than "closing mosques", unless the BBC are not mentioning that policy in their article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r1x5yyd5wo

Anyhow that's democracy. Those who want tighter immigration controls have a party to vote for and those who don't have other parties. If the price of government is betraying those voters then it is pointless being in it. Reading between the lines, that was why he collapsed the coalition and would prefer to remain an outsider.

[Gargamel]

JagLover said:

It looks like it collapsed over immigration restrictions rather than "closing mosques", unless the BBC are not mentioning that policy in their article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r1x5yyd5wo

Anyhow that's democracy. Those who want tighter immigration controls have a party to vote for and those who don't have other parties. If the price of government is betraying those voters then it is pointless being in it. Reading between the lines, that was why he collapsed the coalition and would prefer to remain an outsider.

That was the last part - he couldn't get a coalition together in the first place without agreeing not to be the PM and not closing any mosques. All I was really saying is the gap between the rhetoric and the policy was huge ! which is why lots of his vote abandoned him.

Anyway - its down to the overseas vote now for who won. 90,000 votes still to count and the gap between Wilders and Jettens is around 1000 votes

[DeejRC]

parabolica said:

DeejRC said:

Now, quite how he delivers on 10 new cities the Lord alone knows, but I wish him luck. Dutch politics can be even more local cross fighting than British!! As always, my support remains for the Pirate Party, aaarrrggghh!

They managed something similar back in the 80s; very different times obviously but there are ways to do it. I've spent most of 2025 off & on looking at buying a house here (far east of NL, right up near the German border) and the competition in purchasing something is off the scale - not unusual to see the winning bids be 50-75% above the asking price.

It’s insane. It was utterly insane when I lived in Leiden and that was nearly a decade ago, the Amsterdam crowd are all saying E1m or fk off now. It’s just bonkers.

Then of course there is the farming crowd who will make life interesting when say says he wants to put 10 cities on the precious land. No idea what the cost would be, but I’d be looking at a new land reclamation project.

[Gargamel]

DeejRC said:

It s insane. It was utterly insane when I lived in Leiden and that was nearly a decade ago, the Amsterdam crowd are all saying E1m or fk off now. It s just bonkers.

Then of course there is the farming crowd who will make life interesting when say says he wants to put 10 cities on the precious land. No idea what the cost would be, but I d be looking at a new land reclamation project.

Could fill in the Ijsselmeer - save money on repairing the dam.

[Randy Winkman]

JagLover said:

It looks like it collapsed over immigration restrictions rather than "closing mosques", unless the BBC are not mentioning that policy in their article.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0r1x5yyd5wo

Anyhow that's democracy. Those who want tighter immigration controls have a party to vote for and those who don't have other parties. If the price of government is betraying those voters then it is pointless being in it. Reading between the lines, that was why he collapsed the coalition and would prefer to remain an outsider.

You seem to be suggesting that everyone is voting there and would vote in the UK based on immigration issues. I think there are problems with immigration in the UK and think we should have tighter controls but would not vote for Reform. I think there are problems with lots of things and I think they would make the country worse than it already is.

[Sway]

DeejRC said:

parabolica said:

DeejRC said:

Now, quite how he delivers on 10 new cities the Lord alone knows, but I wish him luck. Dutch politics can be even more local cross fighting than British!! As always, my support remains for the Pirate Party, aaarrrggghh!

They managed something similar back in the 80s; very different times obviously but there are ways to do it. I've spent most of 2025 off & on looking at buying a house here (far east of NL, right up near the German border) and the competition in purchasing something is off the scale - not unusual to see the winning bids be 50-75% above the asking price.

It s insane. It was utterly insane when I lived in Leiden and that was nearly a decade ago, the Amsterdam crowd are all saying E1m or fk off now. It s just bonkers.

Then of course there is the farming crowd who will make life interesting when say says he wants to put 10 cities on the precious land. No idea what the cost would be, but I d be looking at a new land reclamation project.

Mate has just paid E1.6M for a fairly average medium family home outside the 'Dam.

And yeah, immigration is a huge topic, dominates pretty much any night out I have with Dutch team. Less so the Belgians.

There's a lot of unhappiness there aiui, more than I see here. From house prices, to attacks on agriculture, through to incentives to have solar panels becoming big bills for 'excess generation'.