37 party system: Dutch parliamentary elections

1. 
   

In the upcoming parliamentary elections, which one of the following would you guess is not a real political party a Dutch person can vote for?

-A party representing the elderly

-A party representing animal rights

-A party representing the Linux distribution “Ubuntu”

-A “party party” focussed on ...partying?

The answer is of course that all of the above are real parties, although I may have misunderstood the “Ubuntu connected front”. The first two parties are in the current parliament, holding 3 and 4 seats respectively. Our lower chamber currently consists of 15 political parties,an amount that has gone up over time, with the last two parliaments seating 10 and 11 parties. Our government is a coalition of four parties. 

2. 
   

The reason I’m writing this article is to introduce some context for the upcoming election on March 17, especially because the political system in the Netherlands is very different from other countries’. The US has a two-party system, the UK a 3-4 party system, and Germany around 5. All of these come nowhere close to the Dutch experience. Parties can reach 30% of the vote one election, and fall to below 10% the next.

I’d like to start by offering a bit of background. The Netherlands has a proportional representation system with no minimum requirements. This means a party can be in parliament with just one of the 151 seats available in the lower house. Parties supply lists of candidates, and voters can select one of the candidates from the party they prefer. The upper house works a little differently, but I will not discuss that here. Their function is also more ceremonial, as most upper houses.

3. 
   

The picture below shows the billboards from all parties participating in the upcoming election:

A government-sponsored billboard showing all political parties running in parliamentary elections.

Having 37 parties to choose from can be confusing. Even tracking the 15 currently in parliament can be difficult to do. Luckily, Dutch people can use various online tools to see which parties are close to their policy preferences. I highly recommend using Google Translate together with either kieskompas or stemwijzer to see the kinds of policies that Dutch people will have to choose between. Kieskompas even gives you a progressive/conservative axis with a left-right axis on which to locate you, together with parties that are closest to the answers you gave. In order to show up on the list, a political party has to tell the makers of the tool what their political stance is. Not all parties do this, so often the picture supplied is not complete.

The kieskompas

4. 
   

So what kind of options do you get when you have 37 parties on the ballot? A small selection:

PVV: Party for freedom (#2 on the poster mosaic above)

Founded by an ex-VVD member Geert Wilders, the PVV can likely be considered to be populist. The election program is focussed on anti-immigrant and anti-elite rhetoric that is pretty standard fare in many other Western democracies. One interesting thing about the party is that it only has one member, Geert Wilders, with others classified as “supporters”. This means that he cannot be voted out as leader. The loophole that made it possible to create a party like this has since been closed.

SP: Socialist party (#6)

I added this as the existence of such a party may be surprising to people from the US (although it is likely less surprising now than a few years ago). Closer to the center than they have been in the past, they are a part of some local governments but are never a real option in national politics. Some examples of issues they support are stronger rights for workers, more money for healthcare and a lower pension age. I looked through their election program and the word “revolution” did not appear.

PvD: Party for the animals (#8)

A party focussed on animal rights. Their argument is that the current economic system is not functioning as it should, and should be changed entirely to make it ecologically sustainable. On their website they advocate for equal justice and international solidarity. Their election program features the word “revolution” once, in the word “food revolution”.

50+ (#10)

I don’t know of any other countries that have an age-based party in their parliament. As far as I know, this party exists for two reasons: 1) to vote against any changes related to pensions and 2) to wage unrelenting internal warfare. Their party leader has been replaced so many times that it is hard to keep track. Anyway, semi-relatedly most political parties have a youth group. The one for the Socialist Party is called RED and the one for the PvD is called PINK (not all of them are colours). 50+ does not have a youth wing.

SGP: Reformed Political Party (#11)

Together with the SP, the oldest party on the list. I included them to mention that this is the most religiously devout party we have, and it took a lawsuit in order to let women become members. 

Volt (#17)

I think the idea behind this party is interesting. Supposedly, a version of Volt participates in elections in every EU country in order to create something of a European demos. Together with the pirate party, they are likely the most digitally savvy of the bunch.

BBB: Farmers citizen movement (#23)

The Netherlands is a densely populated country with a large agricultural sector. The sector is very successful, but also produces a lot of nitrogen. This is a chart of kilos of nitrogen produced per hectare. In response to EU pressure, the government put new restrictions on nitrogen emissions in the last few years, which caused protests with heavy machinery, and now we have a Farmers citizen movement.

ToN: proud of the Netherlands (#28)

The winner of the most amazing/ridiculous campaign ad.

 

UCF: Ubuntu connected front (#29)

They are really leaning into the Linux connection. Number 15 on their candidate list is called Mac Intosch.

The party party (#30)

Satire. They participated as a joke and had hoped their application would get rejected so they got their deposit back, but they were accepted. Their party leader is a singer/entrepreneur, used to be a member of the PVV and the party for the future and has a conviction for illegal arms possession.

You may wonder why there are only 31 parties on this list. This is because not all parties managed to sign up in every region. The national broadcaster has the full list. 

5. 
   

So is this situation abnormal in the Netherlands? Somewhat! In the 1972 elections 14 parties were elected to the lower house. This election looks to break that record, with 15 parties currently on track to win at least one seat. Additionally, the ballot has grown to pretty ridiculous sizes. The main difference with about 30 years ago seems to be that a minimum of four parties will again be required to form a government, where in the past often two or three would be enough. 

There have been multiple stories covering polarisation in the United States. Most mention negative polarisation, people voting for a party because they really hate the other side. The fragmentation Dutch system feels like the opposite of polarisation.Voters are free to choose whatever niche fits them best, and they do. One of the challenges with this is that it is very difficult to include niche parties in a government. If your whole platform is maintaining the status quo for pensions it is virtually impossible to make the required compromises to be in a coalition government. 

The Dutch elections will spread out over three days, starting on the 15th of March. It looks like the coalition government will be able to remain in power, but a lot can change between now and then. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed getting a small peek into the Dutch system.