Netherlands Provincial elections 2023 — Results

Background

The 2023 Dutch provincial elections, held on 15 March 2023, delivered the most spectacular single-election breakthrough in modern Dutch history. The Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), a party founded in 2019 to defend rural and agricultural interests, won the popular vote in all twelve provinces and became the largest party in every Provincial Council — and, three months later, the largest single party in the Senate. It was a stunning protest against the government's nitrogen-emissions policy and a warning that reverberated through the general election later that year.

How the voting works

The twelve provinces each elect their councils by proportional representation, and those councillors elect the 75-member Senate (Eerste Kamer). Provincial elections are thus the indirect gateway to the upper house, which makes a sweeping provincial result a national event. BBB's victory translated, in the May 2023 Senate election, into the largest bloc in the chamber.

The run-up to the vote

The campaign was dominated by a single issue: the government's plan to slash nitrogen (stikstof) emissions, which threatened to force the buy-out or closure of thousands of livestock farms to protect protected nature areas. The plan had provoked mass farmer protests — tractors blocking motorways, upturned flags across the countryside — since 2019. BBB, led by the charismatic former agricultural journalist Caroline van der Plas, channelled rural anger and a broader resentment of "The Hague" and the Randstad elite, extending its appeal well beyond farmers into small towns and the regions.

The outcome

BBB won 19.19% nationally and 137 of the 572 provincial seats — by far the largest party. The VVD was a distant second on 11.17%, GroenLinks took 8.96% and the Labour Party 8.12%; the CDA, traditionally the dominant rural party, was crushed to 6.64% as its base defected wholesale to BBB. The combined parties of Rutte's fourth cabinet slumped, leaving the government in a weak Senate position. The right-wing JA21 and the pan-European Volt also entered many councils.

Turnout and regional patterns

Turnout was 58.64%, the highest for a Dutch provincial election in decades. The map was unprecedented in its uniformity: BBB finished first in every one of the twelve provinces, with its strongest results in the rural east and north — Drenthe (over 33%), Overijssel and Friesland — but leading even in the urbanised provinces of North and South Holland. The map above shows the largest party in each province; click any province for the full breakdown.

What followed

In the May 2023 Senate election BBB emerged as the largest party with 16 of 75 seats. The nitrogen crisis that had powered its rise also helped bring down the Rutte government a few months later, and BBB went on to join the right-wing national coalition formed after the November 2023 general election. The provincial landslide of March 2023 thus proved to be the opening act of the most turbulent year in recent Dutch politics.

Source

Official results from the Electoral Council (Kiesraad) — verkiezingsuitslagen.nl. The provincial map is built from the Kiesraad's per-province figures.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.