Far-right Dutch politician says he doesn’t have enough support to become next premier

LONDON

Far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders said Wednesday that he does not have enough support to become the country’s prime minister.

"I can only become premier if ALL parties in the coalition support that. That wasn’t the case," Wilders wrote on X,

His remarks came following reports that efforts to form a new government with Wilders as prime minister have collapsed.

He said in a later post that he would “still become prime minister of the Netherlands” one day, “with the support of even more Dutch people. If not tomorrow, then the day after. The voice of millions of Dutch people will be heard!”

Over 10.4 million voters cast their ballots on Nov. 22 to elect members of the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.

Wilders' far-right Islamophobic Party for Freedom (PVV) emerged as the top party with 37 seats, followed by GroenLinks-PvdA, a coalition led by former European Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, with 25.​​​​​​​

After the elections, the PVV, former Prime Minister Mark Rutte's center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) led by lawmaker Caroline van der Plas, and the New Social Contract (NSC) party entered negotiations to form a new government.

*Nur Asena Erturk contributed to this report in Ankara