Netherlands
The story
Dutch politics was dominated by Christian democrats for the early postwar decades, only pushed from power in the 1994 election by a "purple coalition" of Social Democrats, liberal VVD and left-liberal D66. Since then the Netherlands has run one of Europe's most fragmented party systems — no electoral threshold means around two-thirds of 1% of the vote normally wins a seat; 17 parties entered parliament in 2021 and 15 in both 2023 and 2025. Coalition talks have grown correspondingly slower: 225 days after the 2017 election, a record 299 days after 2021.
2002 · Pim Fortuyn and the immigration turn
Pim Fortuyn, who called Islam an "achterlijk" (backward) religion, broke with Livable Netherlands and founded the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) in 2002. The party became a sensation in that year's election with 17%, although Fortuyn himself was murdered nine days before the vote. The resulting government proved chaotic (one minister was forced to resign over a militia past, another backed the death penalty) and collapsed after only a few months, but its legacy endured: the Netherlands became, alongside Denmark, a European symbol of tougher immigration policy in the 2000s.
2006–2023 · Geert Wilders' long road to victory
Geert Wilders left the VVD in 2004 and founded the Party for Freedom (PVV), which entered parliament in 2006, taking over the LPF's space with an even harder line — anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-EU, with particular hostility to Turkish membership. Formally, Wilders is the party's only member; it runs no conventional campaigns, relying entirely on his media presence. PVV first gained real influence in 2010 as a confidence-and-supply partner to Rutte's government, a cooperation that collapsed after less than two years over austerity cuts. After over a decade in opposition, PVV unexpectedly became the largest party in November 2023, with 23.5% and 37 seats — its first-ever victory.
2016–2023 · Challengers on the right and the farm
Forum for Democracy (FvD), founded in 2016 by Thierry Baudet, briefly rivalled PVV before drifting into open embrace of "great replacement" conspiracy theories, pro-Putin sympathies, and comparisons of Covid restrictions to Nazi occupation; a 2021 internal split spawned the more moderate JA21. The Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), formed in 2019 in response to conflicts over nitrogen emissions and agricultural regulation, with an "ordinary Dutch people" framing, led the polls for a few months in 2023 before losing ground to yet another new party, Pieter Omtzigt's New Social Contract (NSC). After more than seven months of talks, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB formed the Schoof government in July 2024; Wilders gave up his claim to the premiership to smooth PVV's path into government. FvD recovered in the 2025 parliamentary election with 4.5% and seven seats. BBB fell to four seats, while JA21 broke through with 6.0% and nine seats.
On the left
The Socialist Party (SP), Maoist in origin, moderated into a left-wing populist party from 1991 and was long isolated by the PvdA. Its 2023 platform combined traditional left economics with calls to pause labour migration — what political scientist Cas Mudde called an "old left" mix.
2025-2026 · PVV AFTER THE SETBACK
Wilders pulled PVV out of the Schoof government on 3 June 2025 over asylum demands, and the cabinet fell after less than a year. In the October 2025 election PVV fell to 16.7% and 26 seats, narrowly behind D66 (16.9%). In January 2026 seven PVV MPs led by Gidi Markuszower left to form Groep-Markuszower, cutting PVV to 19 seats. After 117 days of talks, D66, VVD and CDA formed a minority government under Rob Jetten in February 2026, with 66 of 150 seats.
2023-2025 · NSC’S RISE AND COLLAPSE
New Social Contract (NSC) won twenty seats in its first election in 2023 and became crucial to forming the Schoof coalition. Government participation proved disastrous: internal conflicts, doubts over working with PVV, Omtzigt’s repeated absences and ministerial resignations eroded support. NSC ministers quit in August 2025 over Israel and Gaza policy. In October 2025 the party lost all its seats, one of the most dramatic collapses in Dutch politics.
EP elections
PVV won four seats in 2014 and co-founded the short-lived Europe of Nations and Freedom group, then lost all EP representation in 2019 before winning seats again in 2024. FvD won three (then four post-Brexit) seats in 2019, split between ECR, then JA21-aligned members and its own move to Identity and Democracy — its last MEP was expelled from ID in 2022 over pro-Putin social media posts. The Socialist Party sat in GUE from 1999 until losing its seat in 2019.
SP
Socialist Party
- Economics Left
- Social issues Moderate
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low
PVV
Party for Freedom
- Economics Centre
- Social issues Moderate
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Medium
BBB
Farmer-Citizen Movement
- Economics Right
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low
FvD
Forum for Democracy
- Economics Right
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Hard euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism High
JA21
Juiste Antwoord 2021
- Economics Right
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low