Older millennials, 38- to 44-year-olds, now hold the levers of power in Dutch politics, and their policy agenda bears the imprint of their generation’s experiences in the 2000s and 2010s. The politicians who thought defense spending was there to be cut whenever they needed fiscal space are gone; the fiscal policy orthodoxies of the Great Recession are weakened; and housing policy is front of mind as it has not been since the postwar era.

International coverage framed the Oct. 29 Dutch election, like every Dutch election , as a contest between the far right and broadly centrist forces. But what really set this election apart was generational turnover.

International coverage framed the Oct. 29 Dutch election, like every Dutch election, as a contest between the far right and broadly centrist forces. But what really set this election apart was generational turnover.

Older millennials, 38- to 44-year-olds, now hold the levers of power in Dutch politics, and their policy agenda bears the imprint of their generation’s experiences in the 2000s and 2010s. The politicians who thought defense spending was there to be cut whenever they needed fiscal space are gone; the fiscal policy orthodoxies of the Great Recession are weakened; and housing policy is front of mind as it has not been since the postwar era.

The outgoing independent prime minister, Dick Schoof, 68, will likely be succeeded by Democrats 66 (D66) leader Rob Jetten, 38. D66, a socially liberal and economically centrist party that dominates among well-off urban voters, secured