Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2023 (they should have been in 2025) to elect the members of the House of Representatioves (their version of our Commons). This followed years of political instability caused by a succession of Coalition governments falling (4 in the last 2 years alone - the joys of PR). General Elections are held every 4 years but in recent years Dutch governments have routinely collapsed with new ones formed between Elections. To the outsider, it seems Holland is actually run by the civil service while the politicians spend their time mostly at war with each other and doing little else.
The Dutch House of Representatives consists of 150 seats with 76 needed for a majority. By tradition, the leader of the largest party is given 'first dibs' at forming a government and if succesful, with it's leader usually (but not always) occupying the slot of Prime Minister - which is invariably reduced to little more than the umpire in squabbles between coalition members.
15 parties won seats under an open-list proportional representation system, using the D'Hondt method of allocation. A list must receive a number of votes equal to or exceeding the Hare quota (1 full seat) in order to qualify for seat distribution, meaning there is an electoral threshold of 0.67%. Voters also have the option to cast a preferential vote. The seats won by a list are first allocated to the candidates who, in preferential votes, have received at least 25% of the Hare quota (effectively 1/4 of a seat or 0.17% of the total votes), regardless of their placement on the electoral list. If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received. Any remaining seats are allocated to candidates according to their position on the electoral list. In other words it's tiresome bollocks that produces inherently unstable governments that are doomed to continually fall.
Geert Wilders showing what he thinks of the established parties
The party that came first was Geert Wilders' right-wing nationalist Party For Freedom (PVV). Wilders - who is outspokenly anti-Islam, anti-EU and anti-immigrant, and also pro-Israel, pro-Putin and he believes in Judeo-Christianity being and remaining the dominant culture in Netherlands with 'incoming' cultures etc adapting to fit that, not the host nation adapting to fit them and getting rid of them if they won't. He also wants a binding referendum on the return of Capital Punishment, EU and ECHR be damned. He is on the 'death lists' of several Islamic groups and people plotting to kill him have been arrested in the past. At one point he was even banned from entering the UK his views are so out-spoken but he very publicly - along with a TV crew, came to UK anyway and labelled then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith the "biggest cowards in Europe".
In succesive General Elections under his stewardship, PVV has gone from 3rd, to 2nd to now being the largest party in Dutch politics as the established 'old guard' parties have all but collapsed to be replaced by various niche splinter parties. He has an openly derisory opinion and attitude towards left wing politicians even if they are the Prime Ministers of their relevant countries.
For this election, he marginlly watered-down his usual hard-line stance, abandoning his total ban on Islam and teh closure of all mosques in favour of a more conciliatory approach of banning anymore mosques, banning the use of arabic in mosques and madrassas and making islam in Holland secularise by law. This actually gained him some support amongst younger second-generation muslim voters who are desperate to westernise but are being prevented from doing so by their families, elders and mosques.
For this election, he marginlly watered-down his usual hard-line stance, abandoning his total ban on Islam and teh closure of all mosques in favour of a more conciliatory approach of banning anymore mosques, banning the use of arabic in mosques and madrassas and making islam in Holland secularise by law. This actually gained him some support amongst younger second-generation muslim voters who are desperate to westernise but are being prevented from doing so by their families, elders and mosques.
version of the Labour Party in an agreement not to stand against each other)
Classing parties by the UK Left-Cente-Right method is no indication to where they will finally end up in a Coalition. Some parties on one side would rather work with parties on the other side than be in a coalition with other particular parties of similar ideology. For example VVD won't go into coalition with PVV unless Wilders agrees not to be Prime Minister. Let the horse trading begin!!
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