He didn’t sleep much, but it was still nice to wake up for D66 leader Rob Jetten. The party leader from Uden has a serious chance of becoming the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands. “More Brabant in The Hague is good for the country anyway.”
“It is indeed really festive,” Jetten said to a reporter from Omroep Brabant on Thursday morning in The Hague. The Brabant politician is surrounded by microphones and happy party members. Yet the election race is still exciting, especially because it is not certain who will ultimately lead.
This could be either D66 or the PVV. The final results are still awaited. “This is the best result ever for our party. It would be great if we turned out to be the biggest,” says Jetten. “But I am already very proud that we have emerged as the largest in many municipalities in Brabant, for example in Eindhoven and Maashorst.”
“They were extremely happy with this result.”
And Jetten is of course no stranger to the municipality of Maashorst, of which Uden is a part. He was born in Veghel and grew up in Uden. Nowadays he lives with his partner in The Hague.
In 2018, when Rob Jetten was elected party leader, his father said he was ‘proud, absolutely proud’. And the latter is still the case, says Jetten on Thursday morning. “I called our mom and dad last night after the first exit poll, and they were extremely happy with this result.”
Because, he concludes, ‘more Brabant here in The Hague is good for the country anyway’.
“It will be exciting until the last moment.”
Initially, based on the first exit polls, it seemed that D66 was the largest, but the parties are now close together. “It will be exciting until the last moment,” says Jetten.
According to the D66 leader, the result shows that people in the Netherlands want a cabinet to take office quickly. “And not just for our own supporters, but for the whole of the Netherlands. That responsibility now rests on all the shoulders of the party leaders.”
Jetten warned that it will not be an easy formation: “Because it can matter on one or two seats what combinations are possible.” He did not want to prejudge which coalition he prefers.
In the latest provisional forecast, D66 will obtain 26 seats, 17 more than in 2023. The PVV also now has 26 seats.