House of Representatives (Netherlands)

lower house of the Netherlands parliament

The House of Representatives, Dutch: Tweede Kamer (literally Second Chamber), is the lower house of the States General, the parliament of the Netherlands.

House of Representatives

Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal
States General of the Netherlands
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Martin-Bosma, PVV
since 14 December 2023
First Vice President
Tom van der Lee, GL-PvdA
since 19 December 2023
Second Vice President
Roelien Kamminga, VVD
since 19 December 2023
Structure
Seats150
Political groups
Government (41)
  •   VVD (24)
  •   D66 (9)
  •   CDA (5)
  •   CU (3)

Opposition (109)

Length of term
4 years
Elections
Party-list proportional representation D'Hondt method
Last election
22 November 2023
Next election
November 2027 or earlier
Meeting place
House of Representatives Chamber
Binnenhof
The Hague, Netherlands
Website
www.houseofrepresentatives.nl

It is comparable with the House of Representatives in other countries, because it is chosen by direct elections.

It consists of 150 members, who are chosen every four years or earlier when the government has been brought down.

In contrast with the First Chamber or Senate the Second Chamber has extensive legislative powers.

House of Representatives 2021-2023

change

The elections for the new House of Representatives were held on Wednesday 17 March 2021. The new House was installed on 31 March 2021. Twenty parliamentary groups had been present in the House since March 2022 (originally 17).

Parties with considerable gains were the progressive liberal party D66, the populist parties FVD and JA21, and newcomer Volt. Considerable losses had been suffered by the Christian democratic party CDA, the left parties GL and SP, the populist party PVV, and the senior party 50+.

BBB and BIJ1 had made their first appearance in parliament.

On 6 May 2021, Liane den Haan left 50+ and became an independent MP. On 13 May 2021, Wybren van Haga and two other MPs left FVD and became the Group Van Haga. On 12 June 2021, Pieter Omtzigt left the CDA and became an independent MP. In February 2022, Nilüfer Gündoğan was expelled from the Volt group and had been an independent MP since 22 March 2022.

President of the House of Representatives was Vera Bergkamp (D66).

Party Dutch name Shortened Parliamentary leader Original seats Seats
after changes
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie VVD Mark Rutte (2021-2022), Sophie Hermans (2022-2023) 34 34
Democrats 66 Democraten 66 D66 Sigrid Kaag (2021), Rob Jetten (2021), Sigrid Kaag (2021-2022), Jan Paternotte (2022-2023) 24 24
Party for Freedom Partij voor de Vrijheid PVV Geert Wilders 17 17
Christian Democratic Appeal [1] Christen-Democratisch Appèl CDA Wopke Hoekstra (2021-2022), Pieter Heerma (2022-2023), Henri Bontenbal (2023) 15 14
Socialist Party Socialistische Partij SP Lilian Marijnissen 9 9
Labour Party Partij van de Arbeid PvdA Lilianne Ploumen (2021-2022), Attje Kuiken (2022-2023), Jesse Klaver (2023) 9 9
GreenLeft GroenLinks GL Jesse Klaver 8 8
Forum for Democracy [2] Forum voor Democratie FVD Thierry Baudet 8 5
Party for the Animals Partij voor de Dieren PvdD Esther Ouwehand 6 6
ChristianUnion ChristenUnie CU Gert-Jan Segers (2021-2023), Mirjam Bikker (2023) 5 5
Volt Netherlands [3] Volt Nederland Volt Laurens Dassen 3 2
JA21 JA21 JA21 Joost Eerdmans 3 3
Reformed Political Party Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij SGP Kees van der Staaij (2021-2023), Chris Stoffer (2023) 3 3
DENK DENK DENK Farid Azarkan (2021-2023), Stephan van Baarle (2023) 3 3
50PLUS [4] 50PLUS 50+ Liane den Haan (2021), / (2021-2023) 1 0
FarmerCitizenMovement BoerBurgerBeweging BBB Caroline van der Plas 1 1
BIJ1 BIJ1 BIJ1 Sylvana Simons 1 1
Group Van Haga [2] Groep-Van Haga Wybren van Haga / 3
Member Den Haan [4] Lid-Den Haan Liane den Haan / 1
Member Omtzigt [1] Lid-Omtzigt Pieter Omtzigt / 1
Member Gündoğan [3] Lid-Gündoğan Nilüfer Gündoğan / 1
Total 150 150

House of Representatives 2017-2021

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The general elections for this House of Representatives were held on Wednesday 15 March 2017. This House was installed on 23 March 2017 and dissolved on 31 March 2021.

When the results were announced, the Labour Party (PvdA) lost many seats, while the winner, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) led by Mark Rutte, also lost seats, but not as many.

Most of the opposition parties won seats. The populist Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders did not win as many seats as were expected of them, but they became second in the number of seats they had. More seats were won by (especially) GreenLeft (GL), Democrats 66 (D66), the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the Party for the Animals (PvdD), and 50PLUS (50+), along with the newly formed parties DENK and Forum for Democracy (FVD). The only other party to lose seats was the Socialist Party (SP), while the small Christian parties ChristianUnion (CU) and Reformed Political Party (SGP) did not gain or lose any seats.

President of the House of Representatives was Khadija Arib (PvdA).

Party Dutch name Shortened Parliamentary leader Original seats Seats
after changes
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy [5] Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie VVD Klaas Dijkhoff 33 32
Party for Freedom Partij voor de Vrijheid PVV Geert Wilders 20 20
Christian Democratic Appeal Christen-Democratisch Appèl CDA Sybrand van Haersma Buma (-2019), Pieter Heerma (2019-) 19 19
Democrats 66 Democraten 66 D66 Alexander Pechtold (-2018), Rob Jetten (2018-) 19 19
GreenLeft GroenLinks GL Jesse Klaver 14 14
Socialist Party Socialistische Partij SP Emile Roemer (-2017), Lilian Marijnissen (2017-) 14 14
Labour Party Partij van de Arbeid PvdA Lodewijk Asscher (-2021), Lilianne Ploumen (2021-) 9 9
ChristianUnion ChristenUnie CU Gert-Jan Segers 5 5
Party for the Animals [6] Partij voor de Dieren PvdD Marianne Thieme (-2019), Esther Ouwehand (2019-) 5 4
50PLUS [7] 50PLUS 50+ Henk Krol (-2020), Corrie van Brenk (2020-) 4 3
Reformed Political Party Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij SGP Kees van der Staaij 3 3
DENK DENK DENK Tunahan Kuzu (-2020), Farid Azarkan (2020-) 3 3
Forum for Democracy Forum voor Democratie FVD Thierry Baudet 2 2
Member Van Haga [5] Lid-Van Haga Wybren van Haga / 1
Member Van Kooten [6] Lid-Van Kooten Femke Merel van Kooten / 1
Member Krol [7] Lid-Krol Henk Krol / 1
Total 150 150

General elections results since 1946

change

Original seats in post-war Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer).[8]
Coalitian parties marked in olive.
Prime Minister's party in bold.[9]

Party 2023 2021 2017 2012 2010 2006 2003 2002 1998 1994 1989 1986 1982 1981 1977 1972 1971 1967 1965 1963 1959 1956 1952 1948 1946
PVV 37 17 20 15 24 9
PvdA 25 ! 9 9 38 30 33 42 23 45 37 49 52 47 44 53 43 39 37 43 43 48 50 30 27 29
GL 25 ! 8 14 4 10 7 8 10 11 5 6 3 9 9 6 16 10 9 8 8 5 7 6 8 10
* CPN 3 3 2 7 6 5 4 4 3 7 6 8 10
* EVP 1
* PPR 2 2 3 3 7 2
* PSP 1 3 3 1 2 2 4 4 4 2
VVD 24 34 33 41 31 22 28 24 38 31 22 27 36 26 28 22 16 17 16 16 19 13 9 8 6
* PvdV 6
NSC 20
D66 9 24 19 12 10 3 6 7 14 24 12 9 6 17 8 6 11 7
BBB 7 1
CDA 5 15 19 13 21 41 44 43 29 34 54 54 45 48 49 48 58 69 76 76 75 77 51 54 53
* ARP 14 13 15 13 13 14 15 12 13 13
* CHU 7 10 12 13 13 12 13 9 9 8
* KVP 27 35 42 50 50 49 49 30 32 32
SP 5 9 14 15 15 25 9 9 5 2
DENK 3 3 3
PvdD 3 6 5 2 2 2
FVD 3 8 2
SGP 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
CU 3 5 5 5 5 6 3 4 5 5 3 2 3 3 1 2 2 1 1 1
* GPV 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1
* RPF 3 3 1 1 2 2
Volt 2 3
JA21 1 3
50+ 1 4 2
BIJ1 1
LPF 8 26
LN 2
AOV 6
CD 3 1
DS'70 1 6 8
BP 1 3 1 7 3 3
others 1 1 1 2 2 1
Total coalition 41 78 76 79 76 80 78 93 97 92 103 81 81 109 77 97 82 86 106 92 94 127 81 76 61
Total 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 100 100 100

! PvdA and GL together 25 seats

change

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Member Omtzigt split from CDA.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Group Van Haga split from FVD.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Member Gündoğan split from Volt.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Member Den Haan split from 50+.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Member Van Haga split from VVD.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Member Van Kooten split from PvdD.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Member Krol split from 50+.
  8. www.nlverkiezingen.com
  9. Prime Minister's party:
    1956 elections: 1956-1958 PvdA, 1958-1959 KVP.
    1965 elections: 1965-1966 KVP, 1966-1967 ARP.
    1972 elections: 1972-1973 ARP, 1973-1977 PvdA.