THE HAGUE, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The liberal party VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte led in the 2021 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, according to the first exit poll released on Wednesday.

The VVD won 35 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, or the lower house of the parliament. It is on its way to becoming the biggest party in the parliament, just like four years ago in 2017 when the VVD finished with 33 seats.

The center-leftist party D66 came second with 27 seats, showed the exit poll released by polling agency Ipsos. This would mean eight seats more than four years ago and the best result in the history of the party.

The right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV) was projected to get 17 seats, a loss of three seats compared to 2017, and the center-rightist Christian Democrats CDA, 14 seats, down by five.

According to the exit poll, the three left-wing parties PvdA (Labor), SP (Socialist Party) and GroenLinks (GreenLeft) were forecast to get nine, eight and eight seats respectively. The far-right anti-lockdown party Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy) would win seven seats, which would mean five more than in 2017. Enditem