As vote counting continues in the Dutch general election, the PVV may yet come out on top, but the massive win by D66 dominates the headlines the morning after.

It’s a “historic win” by D66 and the CDA is “back as a contender”, the AD writes, while the VVD has managed to “limit its losses”. But the chances of Jetten achieving his “dream cabinet” are slight, the paper said, because “never were the big parties this small”. “The Netherlands is completely fragmented”, the paper concluded.

The Telegraaf predicts a right-wing cabinet consisting of D66, CDA, VVD and JA21 now that Jetten’s preferred coalition partner GroenLinks-PvdA has been “badly hit”. But whatever the combination, “the Torentje [prime minister’s office] awaits” Jetten, the paper said.

The Telegraaf is also scathing about Frans Timmermans, who stepped down as GroenLinks-PvdA leader after his party’s disappointing result, saying that failure “is the leading characteristic” of his career.  “Jetten crushed him”, the paper concluded.

Trouw is less pessimistic about the possibility of a cabinet with GroenLinks-PvdA “but it won’t be easy”, the paper said, referring to lengthy past “horror formations”. A cabinet before this Christmas, which many parties have offered as a possible scenario, is unlikely. “Christmas? If they mean this year, it won’t happen,”  the paper quoted Joost Eerdmans, leader of the far-right JA21, as saying.

A jubilant “candidate prime minister” Jetten graced the Volkskrant’s front page as well. Although the VVD is among the losers of this election, it “holds the key” to the formation, the paper writes. It is doubtful, the VK said, that the VVD will want to be part of a coalition with GroenLinks-PvdA “for the good of the country”, as Jetten said.

The Financieele Dagblad said GroenLinks-PvdA is a victim of D66’s upward surge. “For the longest time, Jetten failed to profit from the rumblings in the last coalition but from September that changed”, the paper writes. The FD, too, sees a “continued trend of a fractured political landscape”.

Broadcaster NOS sees “bumps in the road” for a centre-left coalition but is not sanguine about a collaboration on the right either. “You need a magnifying glass to find anything the VVD and JA21 have in common,” the broadcaster said in its analysis. But with JA21 keen as mustard to form part of the next government,  Eerdemans “may be prepared to drop some of the party’s demands.”

RTL Nieuws contemplates a recount if the result of the race between PVV and D66 is too close to call, “a rare but not unique occurrence”, it quotes a constitutional law expert as saying.

If the PVV does take the lead, Wilders can, in principle, start the formation process. But if the parties persist in their refusal to govern with the PVV his efforts will be in vain. It would be “clutching at straws” to believe they may change their minds.