Mark Rutte wins the elections in the Netherlands again, according to the first polls

The Liberal Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD, in its Dutch acronym) is emerging as the winner of the elections in the Netherlands, with 36 seats in a parliament of 150, according to the exit poll published after 9:00 p.m. public television (NOS), at the closing of the polling stations.

It is the right-wing liberal party of Mark Rutte, the current acting prime minister, who will repeat in office for the fourth time in a row since 2010, the longest term in the country's history.

The main surprise has been provided by the rise of the left liberals (D66) who with 27 seats have been in second position.

Its head of the list, diplomat Sigrid Kaag, has burst onto the national political scene and has snatched second place from the far-right of Geert Wilders (PVV), who remains at 17 deputies.

With more than 13 million citizens with the right to vote and 81% participation, the Christian Democrats (CDA) are in fourth place and the great victim is the left: the Social Democracy (PvdA), the environmentalists of GroenLinks (GL) and the Radical Socialists (SP) do not outperform D66 together.

According to these estimates, several small groups are entering parliamentary life, including Volt, the pan-European party, with four deputies.

Forming a coalition will not be easy, although Rutte, Kaag and the Christian Democrats now add up to the majority, set at 76 seats.

The poll presented by NOS is supported by the survey firm Ipsos, which has visited 70 polling stations and asked 5,000 people for their vote online, but the pandemic has disrupted an exercise that is already complicated.

Hence containment was the norm among candidates first thing in the evening.

There is another problem.

Those over 70 and other risk groups have been able to vote this Monday and Tuesday to avoid infections, and voting by mail has been favored.

About 2.5 million people had the right to do it this way, according to the central statistical office, but there have been many errors in postal mailings and the final results may vary more than in other elections.

The Ministry of the Interior has adapted the rules on the fly to save the ballots that arrive in sealed envelopes, which preserve the secrecy of the vote.

They have been an extraordinary election in the most literal sense of the term: out of the ordinary.

Because the campaign has been almost telematic, with a few street rallies closely watched by the police to maintain the physical distance of 1.5 meters;

because although the electoral programs appeared in full on the parties' web pages, the debates were more one-on-one between the candidates for the post of prime minister;

Because the coronavirus has cornered scandals such as that of aid to families (about 30,000), which caused the resignation of Rutte and his Cabinet in January, and would have diminished their chances of success at any other time.

But, above all, because management is the strong suit of the prime minister who repeats and the voter has believed that in a pandemic it is what is needed: a manager.

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Rutte is not just the brand image of right-wing liberals.

Even his critics acknowledge that he knows how to bring together his colleagues to agree to a coalition - the natural form of government in a society as fragmented as the Netherlands - and he does not falter until an agreement is reached.

For now, his preferred partner is Christian Democracy.

Election day has also left some anecdotes.

The most noted is the bad luck of Hugo de Jonge, Christian Democrat Minister of Health -in functions like the rest of the Executive- who has to keep quarantine because he has been in contact with a person who suffers from covid-19.

Before he knew it, he had to go and go home because he went to vote with an expired passport.

"And it's only noon," he tweeted already confined.

The other protagonist of the day has been the red pencil used to mark the name of the preferred candidate on the ballot.

They are traditional and are not usually paid attention beyond the color note.

But this time they have become a cult object.

People were taking it and they have even put it up for sale on a Dutch auction platform.