Parliamentary election in the Netherlands 2010
The 2010 Dutch parliamentary elections (elections to the Second Chamber of the States General ) took place on June 9, 2010. These were early elections that were made necessary by the break in the coalition of Christians Democratisch Appèl (CDA), Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) and ChristenUnie (CU) in February of that year.
The trigger for the PvdA's withdrawal from the coalition were disagreements over the extension of the Dutch mandate in the Afghan province of Uruzgan . On February 20, 2010, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced the resignation of the PvdA ministers. After Queen Beatrix accepted the resignation on February 23, the executive cabinet Balkenende IV consisted only of representatives of the Christian parties CDA and CU, which only had 47 out of 150 seats in parliament.
Accompanying parties
On April 29, 2010 it was announced that 19 lists will be available for election in the following order:
| list | Political party | Top candidate | 2006 result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Christians Democratic Appèl (CDA) | Jan Peter Balkenende | 41 seats, 26.5% |
| 2. | Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) | Job Cohen | 33 seats, 21.2% |
| 3. | Socialist Party (SP) | Emile Roemer | 25 seats, 16.6% |
| 4th | Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) | Mark Rutte | 22 seats, 14.7% |
| 5. | Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) | Geert Wilders | 9 seats, 5.9% |
| 6th | GroenLinks (GL) | Femke Halsema | 7 seats, 4.6% |
| 7th | ChristenUnie (CU) | André Rouvoet | 6 seats, 4.0% |
| 8th. | Democrats 66 (D66) | Alexander Pechtold | 3 seats, 2.0% |
| 9. | Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD) | Marianne Thieme | 2 seats, 1.8% |
| 10. | State-certified Gereformeerde Partij (SGP) | Kees van der Staaij | 2 seats, 1.6% |
| 11. | not allowed | not participated | |
| 12. | Nieuw Nederland | Jan-Frank Koers | not participated |
| 13. | Trots op Nederland / Lijst Rita Verdonk (TON) | Rita Verdonk | not participated |
| 14th | Partij voor Men en Spirit (MenS) | Lea Manders | not participated |
| 15th | Heel Nederland (Heel NL) | Daisha de Wijs | not participated |
| 16. | Partij één | Yesim Çandan | not participated |
| 17th | Nameless list (LEF, now Lijst 17 ) | Lot Feijen | not participated |
| 18th | Pirate party | Samir Allioui | not participated |
| 19th | Nameless list ( Evangelische Partij Nederland ) | Yvette Laclé | not participated |
The first ten parties appear in the order of their performance in the last election . Positions 11 to 18 were drawn. The PVDM was not able to submit the required documents in full by the deadline and was unable to participate in the election. The association LEF (Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité) did not register as a party on time and is therefore kept as a list without a name. In response to this, it has since been renamed "Lijst 17". The EPN has not submitted lists of candidates for all 19 constituencies and therefore appears in the last position, due to formal omissions, also as a list with no names. The Heel Nederland party was not allowed in seven constituencies due to insufficient number of support signatures. All participating parties have the same list for all constituencies in which they stand, both the candidates and their order is exactly the same.
Developments and trends in advance
PvdA and GroenLinks as well as CU and SGP each entered into a list connection , which increased the chances of receiving a remaining mandate .
Of the parties that remained without a mandate in the 2006 parliamentary elections, none ran in the current election.
On the basis of the survey results, which have fluctuated strongly up to now, no reliable statements could be made about the future strength of the parties or the possible composition of a new government coalition. However, some trends became apparent - also taking into account the results of the 2009 European elections and the municipal council elections of March 2010. Losses compared to the 2006 election were expected for the SP, which was barely able to achieve its record result of November 2006, and for the CDA, which for eight years with Prime Minister Balkenende, determined Dutch government policy.
Gains were most likely expected for the right-wing populist PVV with its leader Geert Wilders, who is controversial beyond national borders, the right-wing liberal VVD, which rose to first place in the vote at the end of May, and the social-liberal party D66, which achieved its worst election result in 2006. No major changes were expected for the other parties represented in parliament; all of them were trusted to return to the Second Chamber. From the new lists, TON could possibly come to a seat. The party founder Rita Verdonk was a member of parliament, since she was elected as a candidate for the VVD in 2006, from which she resigned in 2007 without giving up her seat.
Election result
The official final result was published by Kiesraad on June 15th . The VVD became the largest party just before the slightly losing PvdA, followed by the PVV as the clear winner. The CDA, previously always the largest or rarely the second largest party, fell dramatically to fourth place.
| Political party | 2006 | 2010 | difference | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| be right | percent | Seats | be right | percent | Seats | percent | Seats | ||
| Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) | 1,435,400 | 14.7 | 22nd | 1,929,575 | 20.5 | 31 | +5.8 | +9 | |
| Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) | 2,080,554 | 21.2 | 33 | 1,848,805 | 19.6 | 30th | −1.6 | −3 | |
| Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV) | 578,615 | 5.9 | 9 | 1,454,493 | 15.5 | 24 | +9.6 | +15 | |
| Christians Democratic Appèl (CDA) | 2,602,668 | 26.5 | 41 | 1,281,886 | 13.6 | 21st | −12.9 | −20 | |
| Socialist Party (SP) | 1,628,343 | 16.6 | 25th | 924,696 | 9.8 | 15th | −6.8 | −10 | |
| Democrats 66 (D66) | 191.911 | 2.0 | 3 | 654.167 | 6.9 | 10 | +5.0 | +7 | |
| GroenLinks (GL) | 449,958 | 4.6 | 7th | 628.096 | 6.7 | 10 | +2.1 | +3 | |
| ChristenUnie (CU) | 389.984 | 4.0 | 6th | 305.094 | 3.2 | 5 | −0.7 | −1 | |
| State-certified Gereformeerde Partij (SGP) | 153,150 | 1.6 | 2 | 163,581 | 1.7 | 2 | +0.2 | 0 | |
| Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD) | 179,484 | 1.8 | 2 | 122,317 | 1.3 | 2 | −0.5 | 0 | |
| Trots op Nederland (TON) | - | - | - (1) | 52,937 | 0.6 | 0 | +0.6 | (−1) | |
| Partij voor Men en Spirit | - | - | - | 26,196 | 0.3 | 0 | +0.3 | 0 | |
| Pirate party | - | - | - | 10,471 | 0.1 | 0 | +0.1 | 0 | |
| Lijst 17 (LEF) | - | - | - | 7,456 | 0.1 | 0 | +0.1 | 0 | |
| Nieuw Nederland | - | - | - | 2.010 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Partij één | - | - | - | 2,042 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Heel Nederland | - | - | - | 1,255 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| List Laclé ( Evangelische Partij Nederland ) | - | - | - | 924 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Others 2006 | 120,446 | 1.2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Overall valid | 9,838,683 | 100.0 | 150 | 9.416.001 | 100.0 | 150 | 0.0 | 0 | |
VVD was the largest in six provinces, followed by PvdA in the four northern provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe and Noord-Holland. The CDA received the most votes in Overijssel and the PVV in Limburg (Geert Wilders comes from this province). Zuid-Holland has the most, namely about a fifth of all seats, Zeeland and Flevoland only three each.
The collapse of the CDA (green) and the relative strength of the VVD (blue) are reflected on the political map with the results of the municipalities. The Social Democrats (red) keep their bastions in the northeast and in individual municipalities, often in large cities. Because of the weakness of the CDA, the strict Calvinist Bible belt with the SGP (orange) is easily recognizable. The strongholds of the CDA in the east and south have only remained in place to a limited extent, in the south-east the PVV (light blue) now dominates.
The voter turnout (75.40%) was around five percent below the 2006 figure (80.35%). The Kiesdeler (minimum number of votes for obtaining a seat) is 62,773. The 150 elected MPs include 89 men and 61 women. Of these, Sabine Uitslag (CDA) and Pia Dijkstra (D66) came through preferential votes despite a less favorable list position in parliament.
Maurice de Hond, one of the country's leading pollsters, writes that of the PvdA voters, 42 percent would have preferred another party, but ultimately chose the PvdA for strategic reasons. Of the other parties, only 10 to 15 percent voted strategically. He points out that voters are very changeable these days.
Nine days after the election, according to an Internet-based survey, 15 percent of the electorate voted for another party, so that the VVD had 29 seats, the PVV 28, the PvdA 27 and the CDA 19 seats. According to the first poll after the election of the Synovate Institute, whose polls before the election came very close to the actual election result with the exception of the values for the PVV, VVD, PvdA and PVV recorded slight gains and came to 34 (3 more than at the election) , 32 (2 more), or 25 (one more) seats. The CDA cut two seats worse than in the election and would have 19 seats.
Government formation
Starting position
On the evening of the election, the outgoing Prime Minister Balkenende announced his resignation as political leader of the CDA party in view of the clear defeat. Until the formation of a new cabinet Balkenende remained in office, his successor as political leader of the CDA was Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen .
The election result made a coalition of three or more parties necessary in order to achieve the absolute majority usually desired in the Netherlands. The following combinations in particular were discussed:
- VVD, PvdA, CDA, often referred to as national or coalition of the center (82 out of 150 seats).
- VVD, PVV, CDA, the right-wing coalition, possibly in a variant in which the PVV tolerates a minority cabinet of VVD and CDA (76 seats). The SGP with its two seats had agreed to support such a cabinet under certain conditions.
- VVD, PvdA, D66, GL as a so-called couples-plus coalition. Paars (purple) was the name given to the previous coalitions of the first three parties, the plus necessary for the majority means the Green Left (81 seats).
According to a representative survey by Synovate from the week after the election, 31 percent of all voters were in favor of a right-wing coalition (8% of them wanted a coalition including the SGP). 22 percent preferred the so-called "purple plus" coalition, 11 percent voted for a coalition of the traditional parties VVD, PvdA and CDA. However, this constellation was desired by the majority of CDA voters (37%). Only 18% were in favor of a legal alliance made up of VVD, PVV and CDA. Another 13% supported such an alliance, including the SGP.
According to Maurice de Hond, 89 percent of PVV voters and 65 percent of VVD voters were in favor of the right-wing coalition on June 13, compared with 43 percent for the CDA. The remaining voters (D66, PvdA, SP, GroenLinks) were against it with 82 to 95 percent each. A couples-plus coalition was supported by voters from PvdA, D66 and GroenLinks with 90 to 95 each, but only by 17 percent of VVD voters. Overall, 35 percent of voters preferred the right-wing coalition, 33 percent Lila-plus and ten percent a cabinet with VVD, PvdA and CDA. Furthermore, 54 percent of those surveyed believed that the next election would take place in 2011 or 2012, only 21 percent saw it in 2014.
Informateur Rosenthal
On June 12, Queen Beatrix named Uri Rosenthal , the chairman of the VVD parliamentary group in the First Chamber , as an informator . Above all, but not exclusively, he should explore the possibility of a VVD-PVV coalition, the two most successful parties. Rosenthal announced on June 17th that he saw no possibility of forming a coalition of VVD, PVV and CDA. From some local branches of the CDA there had been some fierce resistance to a coalition with Wilders, including threats to leave.
On June 22, the negotiations on the formation of a couples-plus coalition were initially declared to have failed because Mark Rutte (VVD) in particular saw no prospect of working with the Social Democrats. As the next option, Rosenthal saw a cabinet in the middle, possibly extended by D66 and GroenLinks. In his final report to the Queen on June 25, Rosenthal recommended that further exploratory talks should be conducted with the five parties, VVD, PvdA, CDA, D66 and GroenLinks, and that a cabinet should be formed “from the broad center”.
Informateur Tjeenk Willink (1st time)
The following discussions were conducted by the Vice-President of the State Council, Herman Tjeenk Willink (PvdA), appointed by Beatrix as the new informateur , and in his final report on July 5 he recommended the formation of Paars-Plus , because only this combination emerged stronger from the election , while every model including the CDA shows a negative balance.
The subsequent coalition negotiations were moderated by Uri Rosenthal and Jacques Wallage on behalf of the Queen . After about two weeks of in-depth consultation, the two informators came to the conclusion that an agreement between VVD and PvdA on the composition of an austerity package was not to be expected in the short term.
Informateur Lubbers
On July 22, the former CDA Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers became an informateur . On July 24th, the CDA parliamentary group decided to negotiate a coalition with VVD and PVV. On July 30th, the three parties agreed on a VVD / CDA minority government supported by the PVV. In his final report to the Queen on August 3, Lubbers recommended that this model be pursued further. At a special session of the Second Chamber on August 4, various left-wing parties accused him of not having complied with his mandate, as important negotiations between VVD, PVV and CDA took place without his moderation and the course was set for an unstable minority government have been.
Informateur Opstelten (1st time)
On the same day, the Queen commissioned Ivo Opstelten (the VVD chairman), proposed by Lubbers at the request of the three right-wing parties , to act as the new informateur for the conclusion of a coalition agreement between VVD and CDA. On August 31 and September 1, there were violent disputes in the CDA parliamentary group because three of its MPs, including the still incumbent Health Minister Ab Klink , no longer wanted to support a VVD / CDA government supported by the PVV and wanted to end the negotiations .
After strong pressure from within the party, they agreed to continue the negotiations on the night of September 1st and 2nd. Geert Wilders, for his part, declared the negotiations to have failed on September 3rd, justifying the fact that the CDA was too unstable. On September 4th, informateur Opstelten returned his order.
Informateur Tjeenk Willink (2nd time)
On September 6th, the Queen reappointed Herman Tjeenk Willink as informateur in order to sound out coalition possibilities. On the same day, Ab Klink resigned from his seat as a CDA MP. Thereupon Wilders announced his readiness to resume the broken negotiations with VVD and CDA the following day. VVD and CDA agreed. Informateur Tjeenk Willink accordingly recommended in his final report that negotiations between VVD, PVV and CDA be resumed.
Informateur Opstelten (2nd time)
On September 13th, Ivo Opstelten was reappointed as informateur and negotiations continued. On September 28th, VVD, PVV and CDA reached an agreement. The agreements consist of a coalition agreement between VVD and CDA and a tolerance agreement between these two parties and the PVV. Among other things, an agreement was reached on tightening the law on foreigners, streamlining administration and increasing the retirement age, which is to be linked to life expectancy in the long term, to 66 years. Cuts in social benefits and dismissal protection demanded by the VVD in particular are largely omitted due to the resistance of Wilders, and even completely in the dismissal protection. The introduction of a road toll planned by the previous government was rejected in advance by all three parties. On September 29th, the parliamentary groups of VVD and PVV voted unanimously in favor of the compromise reached. The CDA parliamentary group also agreed after a long session, but with two votes against. On October 2nd, a general assembly of the CDA voted with 2759 to 1274 votes for a VVD / CDA government supported by the PVV. On October 5th, the entire CDA parliamentary group in the second chamber pledged its support for the new government, including the two MPs who on September 28th were against working with Wilders. These MPs still maintain their reservations about Wilders. On October 7th, informateur Opstelten submitted his final report to the Queen.
Formateur Rutte
On October 7th, VVD leader Mark Rutte was appointed formateur to put the new cabinet together. On October 5th, VVD and CDA had already agreed on the division of ministerial posts. Both parties are to provide six government members and four state secretaries each. With 12 members, the new cabinet is comparatively small, as is the number of state secretaries. Since the late 1960s, the cabinet has almost always had 14 to 16 members. For the first time since 1982, the structure of the ministries has changed significantly. The Ministry of Justice will be renamed the Ministry of Security and Justice and will also have the responsibility for the police, which was previously part of the Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of Agriculture will be incorporated into the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Transport and Water Management will merge with the Ministry of Housing, Regional Planning and the Environment. The new cabinet was sworn in on October 14, 2010.
| Office | Name (party) |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister Minister for General Affairs |
Mark Rutte (VVD) |
| Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Economy and Agriculture |
Maxime Verhagen (CDA) |
| Foreign minister | Uri Rosenthal (VVD) |
| Finance minister | Jan Kees de Jager (CDA) |
| Minister for Security and Justice | Ivo Opstelten (VVD) |
| Interior minister | Piet Hein Donner (CDA) |
| Minister for Immigration and Asylum [1] | Gerd Leers (CDA) |
| Minister for Social Affairs and Labor | Henk Kamp (VVD) |
| Minister for Education, Culture and Science | Marja van Bijsterveldt (CDA) |
| Minister of Health | Edith Schippers (VVD) |
| Minister for Infrastructure and the Environment | Melanie Schultz van Haegen (VVD) |
| Defense Minister | Hans Hillen (CDA) |
| [1] Minister without portfolio, assigned to the Ministry of the Interior | |
See also
- Dutch parliamentary elections 2006
- Political parties in the Netherlands
- Political system of the Netherlands
supporting documents
- ↑ a b Uitslag Verkiezing leden Tweede Kamer van 9 June 2010 kiesraad.nl
- ^ "Dutch government broken", SPIEGEL-ONLINE, February 20, 2010
- ↑ Kiesraad maakt nummering kandidatenlijsten bekend, April 29, 2010 ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. • Deelnemende partijen en kandidatenlijsten definitief bekend, Parlement & politiek, May 19, 2010
- ↑ Synovate survey archive (Politieke Barometer) ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. • Results from peil.nl ( memento of the original from July 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ NRC: PVV thanks drie zetels aan Limburg, PvdA één aan Groningen , accessed on June 20, 2010.
- ↑ Peil.nl ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (with registration), "Nieuw Haags Peil June 13, 2010", accessed on June 20, 2010.
- ↑ Peil.nl ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (with registration), "Nieuw Haags Peil 20 June 2010", accessed on June 20, 2010.
- ^ Synovate Politiekebarometer accessed on June 21, 2010
- ↑ NOS.nl: Bar end stapt op as partijleider .
- ↑ Nederlanders verdeeld over gewenste coalitie ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 126 kB) accessed on June 21, 2010
- ↑ Peil.nl ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (with registration), Nieuw Haags Peil June 13, 2010 , accessed on June 20, 2010.
- ↑ VVD Senator Rosenthal informateur voor samenwerking VVD-PVV, Parlement & Politiek, June 12, 2010 .
- ^ Rosenthal: geen coalitie VVD-PVV-CDA (NOS.nl) .
- ↑ Paars-plus voorlopig van de baan (NOS.nl)
- ↑ Prof. dr. U. Rosenthal, Informateur: Aan de Koningin, The Hague, June 25, 2010
- ↑ HD Tjeenk Willink, Informateur: Aan de Koningin, The Hague, July 5, 2010
- ↑ Prof. dr. U. Rosenthal / Prof. drs. J. Wallage, Informateurs: Aan de Koningin, The Hague, July 21, 2010
- ↑ Dr. RFM Lubbers, Informateur: Aan de Koningin, The Hague, August 3, 2010
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