The Netherlands has a new prime minister.
After a closely fought battle between anti-immigrant Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders and the D66 party’s Rob Jetten, a 38-year-old gay man who campaigned on climate policy, affordable housing, and restoring trust in government, Dutch voters sided with the gay guy.
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On Friday, they handed the pro-European, socially liberal D66 party a plurality in the legislature, making Jetten the youngest and first gay prime minister in the history of the Netherlands.
“I think we’ve now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message for your country,” Jetten told the media early Friday morning.
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The soon-to-be leader of the EU’s fifth-largest economy campaigned on the slogan Het kan wel, an optimistic phrase that borrows from Barack Obama’s iconic call to action in 2008: “Yes, we can.”
Supporters were ecstatic as the results came in, including Jetten’s 28-year-old fiancé, two-time Olympian Nico Keenan.
Dubbed the “hockeyhunk” by Dutch website Telegraaf, the field hockey-playing Argentine native competed for his home country in the 2024 Paris games.
Last November, the couple jointly posted to their Instagram accounts with photos confirming they’re “Soon to be Mr&Mr💍.”
Jetten said he popped the question at home just before they sat down for a romantic meal together.
“I thought it was about time,” the future prime minister told LINDA.nl last year. “It just feels great. We’re very happy together.”
On election night, Keenan posted an adorable TikTok video of the young couple preparing for the evening.
Set to RAYE’s “Where the Hell Is My Husband?”, the hockey hunk stands solo in a suit before Jetten slides into frame and the pair share a kiss.
“Let’s go,” Keenan says to camera.
Jetten grew up a self-confessed politics nerd in a small town in the south of the Netherlands and came out when he was young.
He hasn’t made his sexuality a major part of his political platform, but he’s been transparent about his identity.
Five years ago, Jetten posted a video reading a long list of homophobic messages from his phone, the BBC reports, highlighting why an international day against homophobia was important.
In a country where LGBTQ+ rights are widely supported, his far-right opponent did not make the new PM’s sexuality a campaign issue in the election.
Instead, Wilders has used gay rights to highlight the intolerance of Muslims as another reason for excluding immigrants from the country.
Jetten has not been a perfect candidate over the course of his young career. He led the D66 to disastrous defeat in 2023. Some media critics have called him “dull”, while the label “Robot Jetten” has stuck.
“Robot Jetten is going to be prime minister!” one reporter exclaimed to him as the election night results became clear.
“Sometimes it can work out really crazy in politics,” Jetten said, grinning.
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