Turnout: 81.57%
About this election
The 2017 Dutch general election, held on 15 March 2017, chose all 150 members of the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer). It was watched across Europe as an early test of the populist wave that had produced Brexit and Donald Trump's election, with much attention on Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV). In the event, Mark Rutte's centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) finished comfortably first, the PVV gained but underperformed expectations, and the night's most dramatic story was the near-annihilation of the Labour Party (PvdA), the junior partner in Rutte's outgoing coalition.
The Netherlands elects its 150 MPs by one of the purest systems of proportional representation in the world. The entire country is a single national constituency, and seats are allocated by the largest-average (D'Hondt) method with no formal electoral threshold beyond the natural one — a party needs roughly 0.67% of the vote (one seat's worth, the kiesdeler) to enter parliament. This produces a famously fragmented chamber in which thirteen or more parties win seats and no party comes close to a majority, so every government is a negotiated coalition. The MPs serve four-year terms, and the prime minister is the leader of the largest party able to assemble a majority.
The campaign was dominated by debates over national identity, immigration and the European Union. Wilders' PVV led many early polls on a manifesto promising to "de-Islamise" the Netherlands, close mosques and leave the EU. Rutte responded by hardening his own tone — publishing an open letter telling those who "refuse to adapt" to leave — and by ruling out any coalition with the PVV. In the final days a diplomatic row erupted with Turkey after the Dutch government barred Turkish ministers from campaigning among the Dutch-Turkish diaspora; Rutte's firm handling was widely credited with boosting the VVD.
The VVD won 21.29% and 33 seats — down eight on 2012 but still clearly the largest party. The PVV came second on 13.06% and 20 seats, a gain of five but well below its polling peak. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the progressive-liberal Democrats 66 (D66) tied on 19 seats each (12.38% and 12.23%), while GroenLinks (GreenLeft) under the young Jesse Klaver surged to 9.13% and 14 seats and the Socialist Party (SP) took 9.09% and 14. The defining figure of the night was the Labour Party's collapse: from 24.84% and 38 seats in 2012 to just 5.70% and 9 seats — the heaviest defeat ever suffered by a Dutch governing party, a punishment for four years of austerity in coalition with the VVD.
Turnout was high at 81.57%, the strongest for a Dutch general election since 1986, reflecting the unusually charged atmosphere. The VVD led the vote in most of the country, including the Randstad provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht and the southern province of North Brabant. The CDA topped the poll in the more religious and rural provinces of Friesland (Fryslân) and Overijssel, the PVV in Limburg, and the Socialist Party in its traditional stronghold of Groningen. The map above shows the leading party in each province; click any province for the full breakdown.
Coalition-building took a then-record 225 days. After talks involving GroenLinks broke down over asylum policy, Rutte eventually formed his third cabinet — a four-party centre-right coalition of the VVD, CDA, D66 and the small Christian Union (ChristenUnie) — with the narrowest possible majority of 76 of 150 seats. The election confirmed the long-term fragmentation of Dutch politics and the erosion of the traditional big parties, trends that would accelerate sharply over the elections that followed.
Official results from the Electoral Council (Kiesraad), the national authority for Dutch election results — verkiezingsuitslagen.nl. The provincial map is built from the Kiesraad's per-province figures.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.