Dutch centrist confident of forming government after far-right's election setback

Dutch centrist leader Rob Jetten said he was "very confident" of being able to put together a government after his party's strong showing in parliamentary elections that saw Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party lose ground

Dutch centrist leader Rob Jetten said he was "very confident" of being able to put together a government after his party's strong showing in parliamentary elections that saw Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party lose ground.

With most of the votes counted from Wednesday's election, which was seen as a test of the far right's strength in Europe, Jetten's D66 and Wilders' PVV were tied on Thursday, with both projected to take 26 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament.

That was a sharp drop for Wilders' party, which lost over a quarter of its seats in two years, stemming from a poor performance in its first attempt at government and growing competition on the right. D66 tripled its score.

Major mainstream parties have ruled out governing with Wilders this time after he brought down the last coalition, which was led by his own party. This leaves him no viable path to a majority, unlike D66's young leader Jetten - who will still need to clinch the support of several other parties.

At 38, Jetten would be the Netherlands' youngest, and first openly gay, prime minister.