Leader of Dutch far-right PVV suggests Tuesday election was rigged, but has no evidence

The leader of Dutch far-right political party PVV used his social media account to push unsubstantiated claims about the legitimacy of the Dutch General Election held earlier this week. The political leader, Geert Wilders, shared screenshots of a few messages he says his party received, but without providing a source for the material. It was yet another controversy for the PVV, after Wilders' poor performance in debates and on the campaign trail, and the revelation that two of his party's Parliamentarians were heavily criticized this month for sharing fake images generated by artificial intelligence in an effort to discredit left-wing leader Frans Timmermans.

The PVV entered the election with 37 MPs, but a final projection from the ANP Election Service showed they would lose 11 of those spots in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament. Instead, D66 was expected to win a slim plurality of votes, winding up with 26 or possibly 27 seats to become the largest party. That projection was released on Friday afternoon, bringing an upbeat response from D66 leader Rob Jetten, and vitriol from Wilders.

A series of messages on X began with Wilders first attacking Jetten and others for referring to the ANP projection with confidence, something Wilders himself did after exit polls showed his party won the 2023 election. He then began sharing unverified claims to cast doubt on the election itself, even though the latest set of provisional results, the latest projections about party distribution, and the initial exit polls were all relatively similar to public polling a day before the election.

"Reports like these are flooding in from across the country, and it's unclear how accurate they are. A proper investigation could help clarify the situation," he wrote. He then shared two specific allegations supposedly from election night workers at different municipalities.

One salacious unverified allegation with text written in first person hints, but never directly states, it is from someone who was located in Zaanstad. That text claims the person saw 15 containers filled with ballots taken away on a trailer hitched to a van, the driver having been instructed to take them to City Hall. "It never arrived. No one knows who he is. We did bring the containers outside. Because we were told to do so by a higher-up."

Any suggestion about fraud or irregularity in Zaanstad is "complete nonsense," a spokesperson for the Noord-Holland municipality told ANP's news service. The story is "completely false", and the origin of the rumor was not known, the spokesperson said.

A second message from Wilders stated, "During the elections, I helped out at a polling station in the Maastricht electoral district. A box with ballots from the Leiden electoral district was used. When this was noticed, the ballot papers were removed from the ballot boxes in the evening with the announcement that they would probably be declared invalid." The text continued to state, "In this case, there were only 132 ballots. But if it happened in multiple municipalities, there could be many more."

A Maastricht spokesperson would not comment, but referred the matter to the national Electoral Council. The organization was expected to respond later in the day.

In any case, the PVV looked to be more than 15,000 votes behind D66 on Friday afternoon, with only ballots in Venray and votes from abroad left to be counted. Venray was a PVV stronghold in 2023, and is near Wilders' hometown of Venlo, but it was unlikely to provide the PVV with the bump needed to get the party to the top spot, ANP reported.

Polling data released on Tuesday, the day before the election, suggested the PVV was in a three-way race with centrist party D66 and Timmermans' GroenLinks-PvdA. An Ipsos I&O survey had the three in a dead heat, each likely to capture 23 of the 150 seats up for grabs, with a margin of error of up to three seats. Meanwhile, an EenVandaag/Verian poll had the PVV likely to grab 29 seats, with D66 on 24 and GroenLinks-PvdA at 25, but also within a margin of error.

Shortly after Ipsos I&O released their exit poll when voting concluded, Wilders was far more humble. He referred to D66 leader Jetten, CDA leader Henri Bontenbal, and JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans as "all the winners" of the election. "We are still either the second, or the first, largest party," but acknowledged he expected and hoped his party would perform better.

But then ANP released on Friday its updated projection declaring D66 the winner, and Jetten made it clear he wants to form a coalition with CDA, VVD, and GroenLinks-Pvda. The "complicated" election results require "some resolve and responsibility" from all party leaders to quickly form a new coalition," Jetten told reporters.

Jetten pushed VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgoz to revisit her refusal to work with GroenLinks-PvdA in a coalition, even after Timmermans resigned on election night when it became clear his party would lose a fifth of their seats in Parliament. "Just let this result sink in for a moment," he said. "And starting Tuesday, work with the [coalition talks leader] to see how we can get started quickly."

While Yeşilgoz wants a center-right-far right coalition with JA21, that will not likely be enough for a majority. Instead, Jetten wants the center-left coalition he proposed, because it will form a clear majority, and will have a "broad mandate" from the voters. "I think with this result, voters have sent a clear message for a collaboration in the middle."

"It’s the Electoral Council that decides, not ANP, what arrogance not to wait for their ruling," wrote Wilders in response. "But even if D66 becomes the largest party, the PVV will not allow the Netherlands to be dismantled by Jetten and his allies, and from day one we will strongly oppose their left-liberal mismanagement with our full force of 26 seats!"

Wilders earned a great deal of criticism following the election in 2017, when his party took 20 seats to wind up second behind then-Prime Minister Mark Rutte's victory of 33 seats for the VVD. Rutte's first Cabinet formed in 2010 was a minority government with the commitment the PVV would back them in Parliament, but Wilders pulled the rug out from under them 18 months later.

In the years that followed, Wilders made outlandish claims questioning the legitimacy of Parliament and separately, the judiciary. He also repeated lashed out with personal attacks against the news media. As a result, Rutte refused to try to form a coalition with Wilders for his third Cabinet after the 2017 election, with the VVD and eventual partner CDA both calling the PVV and Wilders "increasingly radical" and untrustworthy.

"Over the past years Wilders hardened in his rejection of the liberal core values of our country," Rutte wrote at the time. As long as the PVV continues to "shame and insult" population groups, call the Tweede Kamer a "fake Parliament," "undermine the judiciary" and "refuse to take responsibility," Wilders cannot be put into a position of power, he said. "To establish a stable government, mutual trust is indispensable and that is lacking."

During the following election in 2021, Wilders frequently polled very strong. He wound up losing three seats in Parliament when the votes were counted, and continued his insistence the Netherlands was morally "bankrupt" after he was tried for hate speech and inciting violence, and his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court.