Neck-and-neck finish in Dutch election as Wilders' far-right party and centrist D66 tie

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom and the centrist D66 were tied with nearly all votes counted Thursday in the Dutch general election in an unprecedented neck-and-neck race to become the biggest party.

The near-total count tallied and published by Dutch national news agency ANP and cited by Dutch media showed each party winning 26 seats in Wednesday's election.

The nail-biting finish is expected to lead to delays in starting the process of forming a new coalition. No Dutch election has previously ended with two parties tied for the lead.

When D66 reached its previous record of 24 seats in in 2021, the leader at the time, Sigrid Kaag, danced for joy on a table at a party meeting.

This time, current D66 leader Rob Jetten cut cake for the party faithful gathered at Parliament.

“This is the best result for D66 ever,” the 38-year old told a crowd party insiders and media on Thursday morning after he'd been welcomed with chants of the party's optimistic election slogan “Het kan wel,” or “It is possible.”

Wilders’ Party for Freedom is forecast to lose 11 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, while D66 gains 17, according to the vote count.

Wilders insisted early Thursday that his party, known by its Dutch acronym PVV, should play a leading role in coalition talks if it is the largest.

“As long as there’s no 100% clarity on this, no D66 scout can get started. We will do everything we can to prevent this,” he said. A scout is an official appointed by the winning party to look into possible coalitions.

Wilders faces an uphill battle to return to government, however. Mainstream parties including D66 have ruled out forming a coalition with the PVV, arguing that Wilders' decision to torpedo the outgoing four-party coalition in June in a dispute over migration underscored that he is an untrustworthy partner.

As a result, which party ultimately gets the largest number of seats is “completely and utterly irrelevant,” political scientist Henk van der Kolk told The Associated Press.

Van der Kolk sees a possible path forward with a centrist coalition of D66, the center-left bloc of the Labor Party and Green Left, the center-right Christian Democrats and the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.

In fallout from the vote, former European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans said he was quitting Dutch politics after the center-left bloc he led lost seats in an election it had hoped to win.

The election is “unlikely to mark the end of populism in the Netherlands,” said Armida van Rij, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank. She noted that another right-wing party, JA21, which she described as a “PVV-light party with equally undemocratic ideas,” made big gains. The party had one seat in the last parliament and is forecast to rise to nine seats.

The vote came against a backdrop of deep polarization in the Netherlands, a nation once famed as a beacon of tolerance. Violence erupted at a recent anti-immigration rally in The Hague — when rioters smashed the windows of the D66 headquarters — and protests against new asylum-seeker centers have been seen in municipalities around the country.

In the splintered Dutch political landscape, forming a coalition is likely to take weeks or months.

While party leaders were handing out cake to their members, thousands of volunteers were trying to finalize the ballot count.

The ballots of some 135,000 Dutch nationals who voted by mail are also outstanding. The Electoral College will certify the count next week.

Counting was halted in the southern town of Venray, a Wilders stronghold, after a fuse box caught fire and volunteers were evacuated. No one was injured but it was not clear when work will resume.

Rob Jetten, leader of the Democrats 66, D66, celebrates, one day after the general election, at the House of Representatives in The Hague, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Frans Timmermans, of the center-left two party bloc of Labor Party and Green Left, center, arrives at a polling station during general elections in Maastricht, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Ermindo Armino)

A man casts his ballot at the Kromhout shipyard museum, which is operating as a polling station, during general elections in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Far-right anti Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, second left, casts his vote at a polling station during general elections in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Rob Jetten, leader of the center-left D66 party, speaks on stage during exit poll results an election venue during a general election in Leiden, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Moscow on Friday began considering a lawsuit filed by the central bank against Euroclear, the Brussels-based clearing house that holds the bulk of Russian assets frozen by the European Union.

The lawsuit seeks to recover 18.2 trillion rubles ($232 billion) in damages incurred when Russia was barred from managing and disposing of its Euroclear funds and securities, the bank said. The case is being heard behind closed doors.

The EU has frozen 210 billion euros ($244 billion) worth of Russian assets as part of the sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Euroclear holds around 193 billion euros of the seized funds.

Moscow's Arbitration Court picked up the case even though the EU last month set aside its initial plan to use frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine after failing to convince Belgium that it would be protected from Russia's retaliation. The bloc opted instead for borrowing 90 billion euros on capital markers to provide an interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.

Russia's Central Bank has condemned the use of frozen assets to aid Ukraine as “illegal, contrary to international law,” arguing that they violated “the principles of sovereign immunity of assets.”

Participants gather in Moscow's Arbitration Court to hold a hearing to consider a lawsuit by Russia's Central Bank against Belgium-based financial clearinghouse Euroclear in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Participants gather in Moscow's Arbitration Court to hold a hearing to consider a lawsuit by Russia's Central Bank against Belgium-based financial clearinghouse Euroclear in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Participants gather in Moscow's Arbitration Court to hold a hearing to consider a lawsuit by Russia's Central Bank against the Euroclear Group in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

Participants gather in Moscow's Arbitration Court to hold a hearing to consider a lawsuit by Russia's Central Bank against Belgium-based financial clearinghouse Euroclear in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)