General elections were held in the
Netherlands from 15 to 17 March 2021 to elect all 150 members of the
House of Representatives.
Following the elections and lengthy coalition formation talks, the sitting government remained in power.
The election had originally been scheduled to take place on 17 March; however, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the government decided to open some polling stations two days in advance to ensure safe voting for elderly and
immunocompromised citizens.
Citizens aged 70 years or older were also given the opportunity to
vote by post.
The election was held two days before the
2021 Curaçao general election
General elections took place in Curaçao on 19 March 2021, two days after the 2021 Dutch general election.
Electoral system
The 21 members of the Estates are elected by proportional representation. Parties that won at least one seat in the 2 ...
.
Background
Previous election
The
2017 general election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
was held after a five-year coalition government between the
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and
Labour Party (PvdA). The PvdA suffered heavy losses in the election, being reduced from 38 to 9 seats, while the VVD lost 8 seats, falling from 41 to 33 but remaining the largest party. The
Party for Freedom
The Party for Freedom ( nl, Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) is a nationalist, right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands.
Founded in 2006 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man faction in the House of Representatives, it won nine ...
(PVV) came in second with 20 seats, 5 more than it won in the
2012 election
This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*3–4 January: ...
, while the
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) gained 6 seats to win 19 in total.
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) gained 7 to win 19,
GroenLinks (GL) gained 10 to win 14, and the
Socialist Party (SP) lost 1 to win 14. The election also saw two new parties,
Denk and
Forum for Democracy (FvD), enter the
House of Representatives, winning 3 and 2 seats, respectively. Four other smaller parties maintained representation in the lower chamber:
Christian Union Christian Union may refer to:
* Christian Union (Lithuania), a Lithuanian Christian democratic political party (''Krikščionių sąjunga'' in Lithuanian)
* Christian Union (Netherlands), a Dutch Christian democratic political party (''ChristenUn ...
(CU) and
Party for the Animals
The Party for the Animals ( nl, Partij voor de Dieren; PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare.
Since 2019, the PvdD's political lead ...
(PvdD) with 5 seats each,
50PLUS
50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a political party in the Netherlands that advocates pensioners' interests. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel. Henk Krol served as the party's leader from 2016 to ...
with 4 seats, and the
Reformed Political Party
The Reformed Political Party ( nl, Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) is a conservative CalvinistThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist political party:
*
*
*
*
* political party in the Netherlands. The term ''Reformed'' is not a refere ...
(SGP) with 3 seats.
The
third Rutte cabinet was inaugurated after the longest coalition formation in Dutch history, with 225 days between the election and the cabinet being sworn in. The cabinet was led by
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who presided over a coalition consisting of the
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD),
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA),
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) and
Christian Union Christian Union may refer to:
* Christian Union (Lithuania), a Lithuanian Christian democratic political party (''Krikščionių sąjunga'' in Lithuanian)
* Christian Union (Netherlands), a Dutch Christian democratic political party (''ChristenUn ...
(CU). The coalition held a narrow majority in both legislative chambers at the time of the cabinet's inauguration, with 76 of 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 38 of 75 seats 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 ...
. Following the
2019 Senate election, it had a minority of 32 seats in the upper chamber. After
Wybren van Haga was expelled from the VVD faction in 2019, the coalition lost its majority in the House of Representatives. On 15 January 2021, two months before the election, the third Rutte cabinet resigned following a parliamentary inquiry into the
Dutch childcare benefits scandal
The Dutch childcare benefits scandal ( nl, kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or , ) is a political scandal in the Netherlands concerning false allegations of fraud made by the Tax and Customs Administration while attempting to regulate the distrib ...
, and continued as a
demissionary cabinet.
Electoral system
Pursuant to articles C.1, C.2 and C.3 of the electoral law, elections for the
House of Representatives take place every four years in March. The 150 members of the House of Representatives are elected by
open list proportional representation. The number of seats per list is determined using the
D'Hondt method, effectively resulting in an
electoral threshold of 1/150th (0.67%) of votes to secure a seat. Voters have the option to cast a preferential vote. The seats won by a list are first allocated to the candidates who, in preferential votes, have received at least 25 percent of the number of votes needed for one seat (effectively 0.17% of the total votes), regardless of their placement on the electoral list. If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received. Any remaining seats are allocated to candidates according to their placement on the electoral list.
Participating parties
A record number of 89 parties registered with the Electoral Council in order to compete in the election. Most parties, however, did not achieve (nationwide)
ballot access, as they were not able to pay the €11,250 deposit and/or did not receive enough
endorsements (30 for each of the 19 electoral districts in the European Netherlands, and 10 for the
Caribbean Netherlands).
The following 37 parties met the requirements to participate in the election:
Campaign
Debates
Opinion polls
Results
The left-wing parties - Socialist Party, Labour Party and GroenLinks - total less than 20 per cent of the vote. According to political scientist
Cas Mudde, the steady decline of the left since 2006 can be explained mainly by a media agenda dominated by societal issues, especially identity issues, at the expense of economic and social issues. The fraction of
unrepresented vote due to the
natural electoral threshold is 1.99%.
The official results were published by the Electoral Council on 26 March 2021.
By province
Government formation
Rutte claimed the result was a vote of confidence in the
VVD and has ruled out a coalition with the
PVV and
FvD FVD may refer to:
* FVD, an automobile engine made by Cosworth
* Fast Virtual Disk, a disk image file format
* ''Forum voor Democratie'' ( Forum for Democracy), a Dutch political party
* Forward Versatile Disc
Forward Versatile Disc (FVD) is an ...
.
He was expected to form a four-party government with
D66,
CDA, and smaller parties. On 23 March, Rutte said that he preferred a coalition with the new right-wing party called
JA21, which has eight seats 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 ...
that can help form a government majority in both chambers; however, this proposal could potentially meet with resistance from D66 due to disagreements on issues such as climate change, EU integration, and migration policies. If a coalition were formed including CU, there would be differences on medico-ethical issues with D66.
Rutte could also potentially speak to left-wing parties, such as the
SP,
PvdA,
GL, or
Volt, if other attempts fail. SP leader
Lilian Marijnissen said that it was very unlikely that she would join a VVD-led coalition but did not rule it out completely. PvdA leader
Lilianne Ploumen said she would want to sit alone with another party, while GL leader
Jesse Klaver said he is open to a progressive coalition with VVD and D66, despite the party's poor election performance.
While Rutte was in the process of negotiations to form a new coalition,
informateur Kajsa Ollongren (D66) was photographed by a journalist of the
Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau as she was leaving Parliament with a document from the coalition negotiations under her arm. The document contained the note "position elsewhere" next to the name of
Pieter Omtzigt of the CDA, who has been a vocal critic of Rutte and played a key role in exposing the
child welfare scandal that forced the resignation of Rutte's previous cabinet. This photograph caused speculation about whether Rutte was planning to sideline Omtzigt, but Rutte initially denied any involvement in the matter. After further notes emerged confirming he had discussed the possibility of Omtzigt as minister, he said he had "misremembered", and was accused by numerous opposition leaders of having lied to the media and the Dutch people. Parliament held a vote of no-confidence in Rutte as prime minister, which narrowly failed, but D66 and the CDA, which served in Rutte's previous cabinet, instead submitted a motion of censure against Rutte as parliamentary leader; this motion was passed by a large majority, with only Rutte's own VVD voting against. Informateurs
Wouter Koolmees (D66) and
Tamara van Ark (VVD) resigned after the scandal, and were replaced by veteran informateur
Herman Tjeenk Willink (PvdA). On September 7,
Johan Remkes
Johannes Wijnandus "Johan" Remkes (born 15 June 1951) is a Dutch politician and nonprofit director who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 2002 to 2003 under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. He is a member of the People's ...
was appointed as informateur. On September 30, the four parties from the previous governing coalition, the VVD, D66, CDA, and CU, agreed to negotiate forming the same coalition again. After long coalition talks, the four parties agreed to present their coalition agreement on 15 December 2021. With a coalition officially formed, the
Fourth Rutte cabinet was inaugurated on 10 January 2022.
References
{{Dutch elections
Netherlands
Elections in Bonaire
Elections in Saba (island)
Elections in Sint Eustatius
General elections in the Netherlands
March 2021 events in the Netherlands
General
Netherlands