2023 Dutch Senate election

← 2019 30 May 2023 2027 →

outgoing members elected members

All 75 seats in theSenate 38 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– BBB Ilona Lagas 20.66 16 New VVD Edith Schippers 12.40 10 −2 GL[a] Paul Rosenmöller 9.67 7 −1 PvdA[a] Mei Li Vos 8.86 7 +1 CDA Theo Bovens 7.34 6 −3 D66 Paul van Meenen 6.23 5 −2 PVV Marjolein Faber 6.10 4 −1 PvdD Niko Koffeman 4.78 3 0 JA21 Annabel Nanninga 4.63 3 New SP Tiny Kox 4.14 3 −1 CU Tineke Huizinga 3.68 3 −1 FvD Johan Dessing 2.72 2 −10 Volt Gaby Perin-Gopie 2.70 2 New SGP Peter Schalk 2.48 2 0 50+ Martin van Rooijen 1.82 1 −1 OPNL Auke van der Goot 1.78 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. President of the Senate before President of the Senate after Jan Anthonie Bruijn VVD Jan Anthonie Bruijn VVD

An election to theDutch Senate was held on 30 May 2023.^[2] The 75 members of the Senate were elected by members of the provincial councils and electoral colleges elected two months earlier inprovincial andelectoral college elections.

The four coalition parties saw their combined seat count decrease from 32 to 24. TheFarmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), which had come first in the provincial elections, entered the Senate with 16 seats. TheLabour Party andGroenLinks, which intend to form a joint parliamentary group, won a combined 14 seats.

From 2017, the Netherlands had had coalition governments consisting of thePeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD),Democrats 66 (D66), theChristian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and theChristian Union (CU). In the2019 Senate election, this coalition lost its majority in the Senate, holding 32 seats. Being 6 seats short of a majority made it necessary for the government to seek cooperation with opposition parties such as theLabour Party (PvdA),GroenLinks andJA21 in order to get legislation through the Senate. The coalition parties were long expected to lose more seats in the 2023 Senate election, which would make it more difficult for the government to find majorities for important legislation.^[3]

In June 2022, members of the PvdA and GroenLinks voted in favour of the formation of a joint Senate group after the 2023 election. This made the election an important step for theGroenLinks–PvdA alliance.^[4]

From 2019, the government had had the intention to limit thehuman impact on the nitrogen cycle. Its nitrogen bill had met resistance from several opposition parties including theFarmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), which was founded in 2019 and entered theHouse of Representatives with one seat in 2021. With BBB expected to become a significant force in the Senate after the 2023 election, the government was expected to look to the left for support. However, in early March 2023, PvdA and GroenLinks, as well as other left-wing parties, also announced their intention to vote against the nitrogen bill in the Senate.^[5] The government was also expected to face difficulty finding majorities for its climate legislation^[6] and itsDispersal Act concerning the distribution of asylum seekers.^[7]

The government was therefore expected to have to make concessions to opposition parties on these pieces of legislation. However, voters of coalition parties were divided over the question whether the government should turn "left" or "right" in search of support for its legislation. A March 2023 poll showed that a majority of D66 voters wanted the government to cooperate with GroenLinks–PvdA, while a majority of VVD and CDA voters would preferred for the government to cooperate with BBB.^[8]

The Senate consists of 75 members elected every four years by the members of theprovincial councils of the country's twelve provinces, and, following law changes in 2017 and 2022,electoral colleges representing thespecial municipalities ofBonaire,Sint Eustatius andSaba^[9][10] and Dutch nationals living abroad, who are in turn elected directly by the citizens two months earlier in the2023 provincial andelectoral college elections.

The weight of each elector's vote is determined by the population of the province or special municipality which the elector represents, at a ratio of approximately 1 vote per 100 residents. The seats are distributed in one nationwide constituency usingparty-list proportional representation.^[11]

The following parties were due to participate in the 2023 Senate election:^[13]

The table and graphs below show seat projections for the Senate election. Projections before the provincial and electoral college elections on 15 March are based onopinion polling for the provincial elections. The 15 March projection is based onexit polls of the provincial elections, while the 19 March projection byANP is based on preliminary results of the provincial and electoral college elections.^[14]

As projected, theFarmer–Citizen Movement became the largest party, winning 16 seats (as opposed to the projected 17).Strategic voting of D66 and VVD electors resulted in extra seats for their coalition partners CDA and CU.^[27] Moreover, compared to the projections, GroenLinks lost one seat to Volt as GroenLinks elector Debora Fernald voted for Volt.^[28]

With the coalition parties winning 24 seats in the Senate, an additional 14 opposition votes are necessary for a 38 vote majority. Support from either BBB (16) or GroenLinks–PvdA (14) suffices.^[29]

• Senate elections in the Netherlands
• 2023 elections in the Netherlands

• CS1 Dutch-language sources (nl)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata