List of political parties in the Netherlands

Members of the four parties with parliamentary representation since 1980 and participation in government: PvdA, D66, CDA and VVD (from the left). Ulft, shortly before the municipal elections of 2010.

This article lists political parties in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which any one party has little chance of gaining power alone, and parties often work with each other to form coalition governments.

The lower house of the legislature, the House of Representatives, is elected by a national party-list system of proportional representation. There is no threshold for getting a seat, making it possible for a party to get a seat with only two-thirds percent of the vote—roughly one seat for every 60,000 votes. Since this system was implemented in 1918, no party has even approached the seats needed for an outright majority. However, there is a broad consensus on the basic principles of the political system, and all parties must adjust their goals to some extent in order to have a realistic chance at being part of the government.

Parties

Parliamentary parties

Parties with representation in the Senate, House of Representatives or European Parliament, as of September 2012:

Name Abbr. Political Leader International and European Affiliations Votes (2012) House
of Rep.
seats
Senate
seats
European
Parliament
seats
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie
VVD Mark Rutte* Liberal International, ALDE 2,498,231 40 13 3
Labour Party
Partij van de Arbeid
PvdA Diederik Samsom Socialist International, Progressive Alliance, PES 2,331,862 36 8 3
Party for Freedom
Partij voor de Vrijheid
PVV Geert Wilders ENF 950,055 12 9 4
Socialist Party
Socialistische Partij
SP Emile Roemer UEL/NGL 908,295 15 9 2
Christian Democratic Appeal
Christen-Democratisch Appèl
CDA Sybrand van Haersma Buma Centrist Democrat International, EPP 801,160 13 12 5
Democrats 66
Politieke Partij Democraten 66
D66 Alexander Pechtold Liberal International, ALDE 751,504 12 10 4
ChristianUnion
ChristenUnie
CU Gert-Jan Segers ECPM, ECR 294,121 5 3 1
GreenLeft
GroenLinks
GL Jesse Klaver Global Greens, EGP 219,640 4 4 2
Reformed Political Party
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij
SGP Kees van der Staaij ECPM, ECR 197,046 3 2 1
Party for Animals
Partij voor de Dieren
PvdD Marianne Thieme UEL/NGL 181,272 2 2 1
50PLUS
50PLUS
50+ Jan Nagel* none 176,926 1 2 0
Independent Senate Group
Onafhankelijke Senaatsfractie
OSF Henk ten Hoeve* none 0 did not compete 0 1 0
For the Netherlands
VoorNederland
VNL Joram van Klaveren ADDE 0 did not compete 2 0 0
Group Kuzu/Öztürk
Groep Kuzu/ozturk
Tunahan Kuzu none 0 did not compete 2 0 0
Group van Vliet
Groep van Vliet
Roland van Vliet none 0 did not compete 1 0 0
Cultural Liberal Party
Vrijzinnige Partij
Norbert Klein none 0 did not compete 1 0 0
Group Houwers
Groep Houwers
Johan Houwers none 0 did not compete 1 0 0
Total (includes Others; turnout 74.3%) 9,399,664 150 75 26

*: These political leaders are not President of the parliamentary parties in the House of Representatives.

Other parties (only local representation)

Party Abbreviation Year of
Creation
Number of Municipality seats
The Greens 1983 1
Islam Democrats ID 2006 2
New Communist Party of the Netherlands NCPN 1992 3
Proud of the Netherlands TROTS 2007 6
United Communist Party VCP 1999 5
United Senior Party VSP 2001 13

Other parties (not represented in parliament)

Party Abbreviation Year of
Creation
Last election participated
Jezus Lives 2013 Dutch provincial elections, 2015
Liberal Democratic Party LibDem 2006 European Parliament election, 2014
Libertarian Party LP 1993 Dutch provincial elections, 2015
Netherlands Local NL 2011 Dutch provincial elections, 2015
Dutch Peoples-Union NVU 1971 Dutch municipal elections, 2014
Pacifistic-Socialist Party '92 PSP '92 1992 Dutch provincial elections, 2015
Partij van de Toekomst PvdT 2002 Dutch municipal elections, 2014
Partij voor Mens en Spirit MenS 2008 Dutch provincial elections, 2015
Pirate Party of the Netherlands PPNL 2010 Dutch provincial elections, 2015

Regional parties

Party Abbreviation Active in Number of Provincial seats Number of Municipality seats
Frisian National Party FNP Friesland 4 58
Groninger Belang GB Groningen 3 -
Party for the North PvhN Groningen 1 3
Party for Zeeland PVZ Zeeland 1 1

Defunct parties

See also

References

External links

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