Dutch election tests migration and housing shortage, coalition talks

Dutch voters cast ballots Wednesday in a snap election that could reshape the country's fragmented parliament, with migration and a chronic housing shortage dominating a campaign triggered when the anti-immigration Party for Freedom withdrew from the governing coalition in June. Polls indicate the Freedom Party, led by Geert Wilders, is poised to be the largest single party, but a wide range of mainstream parties have ruled out joining a government with him, making coalition talks likely to be protracted.

The election for all 150 seats in the House of Representatives comes less than a year after Wilders' party won the most votes in 2023 but failed to secure a broadly acceptable governing majority. Wilders pulled his ministers from the coalition after partners declined to approve a package of strict asylum measures, prompting the resignation of the caretaker prime minister and the call for new elections. Wilders is again campaigning on promises to sharply cut immigration, including a proposed halt to asylum applications, and on policies critics say target Muslim practices. He urged supporters to boost his party so it will be central in post-election negotiations, saying at a...