Turnout: 77.75%
About this election
The 2023 Dutch general election, held on 22 November 2023, produced one of the most dramatic results in modern Dutch history: a clear victory for Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), which more than doubled its seats to become by far the largest party in the House of Representatives. The election was a snap poll, called after Mark Rutte's fourth government collapsed in July 2023 and Rutte himself announced his departure from national politics, ending thirteen years as prime minister.
The 150 MPs were elected, as always, by nationwide proportional representation with effectively no threshold — a system that allows a sudden shift in opinion to translate almost directly into seats, and which made Wilders' surge possible. Fifteen parties won seats. With no party near the 76 needed for a majority, the result again pointed to lengthy coalition negotiations.
Rutte IV had fallen over asylum policy, and immigration dominated the campaign, alongside the cost of living and the future of the welfare state. The political landscape had been reshaped by new leaders and new parties: Rutte's VVD was now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz; the centrist Pieter Omtzigt, long a thorn in the establishment's side over the benefits scandal, had founded a brand-new party, New Social Contract (NSC), which briefly led the polls; and the Labour Party and GreenLeft contested the election on a single joint list, GroenLinks–PvdA, under former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans. In the final stretch Wilders softened his tone and emphasised "bread-and-butter" issues, and a late surge carried the PVV to the top.
The PVV won 23.49% and 37 seats, a gain of 20 and almost twice the total of any rival. The GroenLinks–PvdA alliance came second on 15.75% and 25 seats, and Yeşilgöz's VVD third on 15.24% and 24. Omtzigt's NSC, contesting its first election, took 12.88% and 20 seats — a remarkable debut, though below its earlier polling. D66 fell to 9 seats and the once-dominant CDA crashed to just 3.31% and 5. The Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), fresh from its provincial landslide that March, won 7 seats. The result confirmed the collapse of the traditional Christian-democratic and social-democratic centre and the arrival of the radical right as the largest force in Dutch politics.
Turnout was 77.75%. The PVV led the vote in ten of the twelve provinces, with its strongest result in Limburg — Wilders' home province — where it took over 33%. Only in the two most progressive, highly educated provinces did GroenLinks–PvdA finish first: North Holland (home to Amsterdam) and Utrecht. The map above shows the leading party in each province; click any province for the full breakdown.
After nearly seven months of negotiations, the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB agreed a right-wing coalition. Wilders, deemed too divisive to be acceptable as premier, stepped aside, and the four parties installed a non-party technocrat, the former intelligence chief Dick Schoof, as prime minister of a cabinet sworn in on 2 July 2024 — the most right-wing government in modern Dutch history. The coalition would itself prove short-lived, collapsing in June 2025 when the PVV walked out over asylum policy.
Official results from the Electoral Council (Kiesraad) — 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.