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Netherlands - Provincial Election - 2015

The Dutch perpetuated their reputation for quaintness on 19 March 2015 by holding national waterschapsverkiezingen (“water-scape elections”), choosing administrators for the dikes and canals that prevent their low-lying country from sinking into a swampy morass. They also voted for the country’s provincial assemblies, and that election threatens to drag the country into a different sort of morass. In the provincial assemblies, which choose the country’s senate, the six largest parties each received between 10% and 16% of the vote.

With six political parties all winning between 10% and 16% of the March 2015 vote in the provincial elections, the Dutch political landscape had never been so divided. Among the smaller ones, GreenLeft lost a senator, the Party for the Animals won one, and the more religious Christian parties did well. The results of the vote, which saw the VVD remain the biggest party, also made it difficult for the cabinet to put together a new alliance to ensure controversial legislation gets passed in the senate. VVD parliamentary leader Halbe Zijlstra said he could imagine a situation in which the government works with different coalitions. With six parties so close together in the election, ‘none of them can avoid taking responsibility,’ he said. ‘The bottom line is that the country has to be governed.’

Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV failed to capitalise on the rise of radical Islam and lost support for the fourth election in a row. The PVV had nine seats in the new-look senate, a loss of one, having captured around 11% of the vote.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberal VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) remained the largest party in the States-Provincial. Opposition Christian-democratic party CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal) became the second party in the States-Provincial. VVD's cabinet partner PvdA (Labour party) only won 8 seats in the States-Provincial. In comparison to the House of Representatives and the Senate there are relatively many parties represented in the States-Provincial that only operate on the provincial level.