advisory referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

on the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (, abbreviated 'Wiv') was held in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 21 March 2018, alongside the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

. It was the second referendum to be held under the Dutch Advisory Referendum Act after the 2016 Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum. A plurality of voters (49.44%) voted against the law, resulting in its rejection. Voter turnout was 51.5%, above the 30% threshold for validation of the result. Although the referendum itself was non-binding,

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Mark Rutte Mark Rutte (; born 14 February 1967) is a Dutch politician who has served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2010 and Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) since 2006. After a business career working for Unilever ...

had promised to take a potential "no" vote into account prior to the referendum.

Background

The draft Intelligence and Security Agencies Act 2017 was laid before the States General by the Government of the Netherlands at the end of 2016. On 14 February 2017, a majority in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

voted in support of the act, which was then approved in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on 11 July. Although a referendum will be held, the government has indicated it plans for the law to nevertheless to go into effect on 1 May 2018.

Request

A campaign to obtain sufficient support declarations for a referendum was initiated by a group of students at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

concerned about the sweeping surveillance powers granted to the

General Intelligence and Security Service The General Intelligence and Security Service ( nl, Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst, AIVD; ) is the intelligence and security agency of the Netherlands, tasked with domestic, foreign and signals intelligence and protecting national ...

(AIVD) under the law. On 1 November 2017, the Electoral Council (''Kiesraad'') announced that a sufficient number of signatures had been collected to trigger an advisory referendum on the tapping law, with 384,126 valid signatures, over 92 percent of those collected, well above the 300,000 required for a referendum.

Party positions

The referendum comes after the formation of the

Third Rutte cabinet The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...

following the 2017 general election, with the coalition divided whether to hold a referendum on the law,

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a Social liberalism, social liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the Centrism, centre of the Left–right political spectrum, p ...

(D66) being the only one of the four coalition parties that voted against disregarding the result ahead of the referendum. The party positions listed below are based on the vote of the law in the

on 14 February 2017, with the exception of

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( nl, Forum voor Democratie, FvD) is a right-wing populist Eurosceptic political party in the Netherlands that was founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2016. The party first participated in elections i ...

(FvD), which was not represented in the lower chamber before the 2017 general election. * PVV announced that even though they voted in favour, they would respect the outcome of the referendum.

Opinion polls

Vote in referendum

Support for the law

Results

Results by province or territory

References

External links

*
Text of the law

Announcement of the Electoral Council on the referendum
{{Dutch elections 2018 referendums 2018 in the Netherlands

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

March 2018 events in the Netherlands