Dutch General Elections
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Every Dutch general election from 1886 to 2025 — the census-suffrage school struggle, the great Pacification of 1917, the pillarised decades, purple cabinets and the Fortuyn revolt, and the fragmented coalition politics of the present.
General elections
42
1886–2025
Latest
2025
D66 largest · Rob Jetten
House seats
150
76 for a majority
The Pacification
1917
PR and universal suffrage in one stroke
The chronology
Every general election, newest first, across six eras — from two-round district contests on a tax-based franchise to the world's purest proportional system. Click any election for the full result and the story.
The fragmented century · 2003–2025
The electorate came loose from its moorings: Wilders on the right, upstart parties in every direction, and record fragmentation — governments now need four partners. Rutte's four cabinets spanned thirteen years; the 2023 election made the PVV the largest party, and 2025 swung back to D66 under Rob Jetten after the Schoof cabinet's collapse.
Purple and the Fortuyn revolt · 1994–2002
In 1994 Labour and the Liberals governed together for the first time, excluding the confessionals from power since 1918 — the 'purple' cabinets of Wim Kok. The experiment ended in shock: Pim Fortuyn, assassinated nine days before the 2002 election, whose party then surged into government from nowhere.
Depillarisation · 1967–1989
The pillars crumbled fast: D66 arrived in 1967 promising to blow up the system, the Catholic vote collapsed, and the three confessional parties fused into the CDA — which promptly led every government of the 1980s under Lubbers, while Den Uyl's PvdA fought the era's polarised battles from the left.
Postwar reconstruction · 1946–1963
After occupation and liberation, the restored parties rebuilt the country through Catholic–Labour 'Roman-red' coalitions under Drees, the architect of the Dutch welfare state. The pillars held: election after election returned the same five parties in nearly the same proportions.
Pacification and the pillarised nation · 1917–1937
The great Pacification of 1917 settled the school struggle and rebuilt the system in one stroke: universal male suffrage, nationwide proportional representation and equal funding for religious schools. Women voted from 1922. For half a century the confessional parties, anchored by the Catholics, sat in every government while the country organised itself into separate Catholic, Protestant, socialist and liberal worlds.
The census-suffrage kingdom · 1886–1913
The Netherlands elected its House of Representatives in two-round district contests on a franchise limited by tax and property tests — under a tenth of the population at first. Politics revolved around the school struggle: Liberals against a rising alliance of Catholics and orthodox Protestants, with socialists arriving at the century's turn.
The long arc in charts
The proportional era since 1918. Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout since 1918
Voting was compulsory until 1970 — turnout above 90% for half a century — and even without the duty, Dutch turnout stays close to 80%.
The shrinking largest party
The winning party's share has fallen from the Catholic 30%-plus of the pillarised decades to D66's 16.9% in 2025 — the lowest ever for a Dutch first-place party, and the arithmetic behind four-party cabinets.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
95.6%
1959 — compulsory voting lasted until 1970
Lowest turnout
73.3%
1998 general election
Most seats won
54
CDA, 1986 — of 150 seats
Highest vote share
35.3%
CDA, 1989 — no Dutch party has ever won a majority alone
Most parties listed with seats
17
1918 — among Europe's most fragmented parliaments
The Pacification
1917
one election settled the school struggle, adopted PR and opened universal suffrage
How Dutch general elections work
The purest proportionality
The whole country is effectively one district: 150 seats divided by national vote share, with no threshold beyond the quota for a single seat — about 0.67%. It is among the most proportional systems on earth, and parliament's fragmentation shows it.
The formation is the real contest
No Dutch party has ever won a majority, so the months after the vote — the formatie, with its informateurs and coalition agreements — decide who governs. Formations have taken as long as 299 days.
Pillars, then fragments
For half a century Catholics, Protestants, socialists and liberals each voted for their own pillar's party. Depillarisation dissolved those loyalties, and the Dutch electorate is now among Europe's most volatile.
The Prime Minister emerges
Voters elect only the House. The Prime Minister is whoever the coalition puts forward — usually the largest government party's leader, but 2023 produced an unaffiliated PM heading a cabinet of four parties.