Geert Wilders' far-right party made strong gains but was edged out by a centre-left Dutch political alliance, according to an exit poll, after the Netherlands kicked off four days of EU-wide elections for the European Parliament.
According to the exit poll published by Dutch television on Thursday evening, the social democratic-green alliance of the Labour Party and GroenLinks secured eight of the 31 seats in the European Parliament filled by the Dutch.
Wilders' anti-immigration and anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) was on track to have secured seven seats.
Polls ahead of the election had predicted that Wilders' party would win a European election for the first time. One recent poll showed Wilders possibly winning 18 seats.
Still, Thursday's results were a success for the party. Five years ago it entered the European Parliament with just one MEP.
The far-right leader had delivered a shock win in the Dutch national parliamentary elections in November and will now govern with three other right-wing parties.
If the good result by far-right parties in the Netherlands is replicated in other countries, they could together win dozens more seats in the parliament, which has the power to change and block EU legislation.
Continent-wide elections for the European Parliament kicked off on Thursday, with the Netherlands the first country to vote in a poll that could see up to 360 million people across the 27 EU member states cast their ballots over four days.
Emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with economic growth subdued, shocked by the war in Ukraine, struggling to cope with rising immigration and attempting to face the dangers posed by climate change, this is a European Union election rife with uncertainty about the path ahead.
Not to mention the fact that it is the first election since the United Kingdom became the only country ever to formally leave the European Union, in 2020.
If forecasters' predictions are correct, far-right parties will do better this time around than ever before, potentially affecting everything from EU policy on migration and climate, to the choice of the next European Commission president.
After the Netherlands, Ireland goes to vote on Friday, followed by Latvia, Malta and Slovakia on Saturday. The Czech Republic and Italy vote across two days: June 7-8 and June 8-9 respectively.
In the rest of the EU, elections will be held on Sunday, June 9.
Once the votes are counted and politicians are elected to their seats in the European Parliament, the political parties will form into different pan-European groups.
The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) has been the largest such group for the last 25 years, though no group has ever had a parliamentary majority.
The other current blocs are the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D); the liberal-centrist Renew; the environmentalist Greens; the far right Identity and Democracy (ID) and less radical but nationalist right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the radical socialist group, The Left. There are also non-aligned parties and independents.
Once the results are in, and the new parliament begins to take shape, EU leaders will gather for an informal summit to start the process of selecting the new president of the European Commission, the most powerful executive position in the EU.
Current Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking a second term. To secure the presidency, von der Leyen must get the backing of a qualified majority from EU leaders. Then, the European Parliament must approve her nomination by a majority vote.
In 2019, von der Leyen was approved by a margin of just nine votes. With the expected growth of far-right parties in parliament, she may face an even harder challenge this time holding on to her job.