2012 Dutch general election

2012 Dutch general election
Netherlands
← 2010 12 September 2012 (2012-09-12) 2017 →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives
76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout74.6% (Decrease 0.8 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
VVD Mark Rutte 26.58 41 +10
PvdA Diederik Samsom 24.84 38 +8
PVV Geert Wilders 10.08 15 −9
SP Emile Roemer 9.65 15 0
CDA Sybrand van Haersma Buma 8.51 13 −8
D66 Alexander Pechtold 8.03 12 +2
CU Arie Slob 3.13 5 0
GL Jolande Sap 2.33 4 −6
SGP Kees van der Staaij 2.09 3 +1
PvdD Marianne Thieme 1.93 2 0
50+ Henk Krol 1.88 2 New
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Strongest political party by municipality
Cabinet before Cabinet after
First Rutte cabinet
VVD–CDA		 Second Rutte cabinet
VVD–PvdA

Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012[1] after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives were contested using party-list proportional representation. The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) received a plurality of the votes, followed by the Labour Party (PvdA).

Prior to the election, polls had predicted an increase in support for the Socialist Party, primarily at the expense of the PvdA,[2] but the PvdA regained support during the campaign, which was attributed to the leadership of Diederik Samsom[3] and in the election the Socialist Party failed to improve its performance. The Party for Freedom (PVV) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) both lost seats.

After 49 days of negotiations, a new VVD-PvdA centrist government was formed on 5 November 2012, comprising Mark Rutte as prime minister along with 7 VVD ministers and 6 PvdA ministers.[4]

It was the first Netherlands-wide election in which the Caribbean Netherlands participated.[5]

  1. ^ www.kiesraad.nl
  2. ^ Dutch Socialists show major gains ahead of Netherlands elections
  3. ^ "Subdued Dutch Socialist opens way for pro-EU coalition". Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  4. ^ "Formation Diary 2012" (in Dutch). NOS. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  5. ^ "Verkiezingen Caribische graadmeter". 15 March 2017.