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House of Representatives Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal | |
|---|---|
| States General of the Netherlands | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Leadership | |
First Deputy Speaker | |
Second Deputy Speaker | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 150 |
 | |
Political groups | Government (demissionary) (26) Opposition (124) |
| Elections | |
| Open party-list proportional representation (D'Hondt method) | |
Last election | 29 October 2025 |
Next election | Next Dutch general election |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Binnenhof,The Hague (closed due to ongoing renovations) | |
.jpg) | |
| Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, The Hague (temporary) | |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheHouse of Representatives (Dutch:Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal[ˈtʋeːdəˈkaːmərdɛrˈstaːtə(ŋ)ɣeːnəˈraːl]ⓘ, literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply theTweede Kamer) is thelower house of thebicameralparliament of theNetherlands, theStates General, the other one being theSenate. It has 150 seats, which are filled throughelections usingparty-list proportional representation. The house is located in theBinnenhof inThe Hague; it has temporarily moved to the former building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Bezuidenhoutseweg 67 in The Hague while the Binnenhof is being renovated.[1]
Although the body is officially called the "House of Representatives" in English, it is not a direct translation of its official Dutch name, the "Second Chamber of the States General", "Second Chamber" or more colloquially just the "Chamber". Rather than "representative" (afgevaardigde), a member of the House is referred to as(Tweede) Kamerlid, or "member of the (Second) Chamber".
The House of Representatives is the primary legislative body of the States General, where proposedlegislation is discussed and the actions of thecabinet are reviewed. Both the Cabinet and the House of Representatives itself have the right to propose legislation; the House of Representatives discusses it and, if adopted by a majority, sends it on to theSenate.[2] Both individualcabinet ministers and the cabinet as a whole must have parliament’s confidence. Therefore, a minister, or the whole cabinet, must resign if a majority of parliament expresses it no longer has confidence in them.[3] Review of the actions of the cabinet takes the form of formal interrogations in plenary and committee meetings, which may result inmotions urging the cabinet to take, or refrain from, certain actions. No individual may be a member of both parliament and cabinet, except in acaretaker cabinet that has not yet been succeeded when a new House is sworn in.
Through functions like the scrutiny and political discussions before meetings of theCouncil of the European Union, the appointment of EU-rapporteurs, and participation in theConference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs the House of Representatives also plays a role inEU policy making.[4]
The House of Representatives is also responsible for the first round of selection forjudges to theSupreme Court of the Netherlands. It submits a list of three names for every vacant position to the Government. Furthermore, it elects the DutchOmbudsman and their deputies.
The normal term of the House of Representatives is four years. Elections are called when the government loses the parliament's confidence, the governing coalition breaks down, the term of the House of Representatives expires, or when no governing coalition can be formed.
All citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. Eligible citizens residing in the Netherlands areautomatically registered through themunicipal population register, while expatriates can permanently register at the municipality ofThe Hague provided they have a current Dutch passport ornational ID. Residents ofAruba,Curaçao, andSint Maarten can only vote if they have spent at least ten years residing in the Netherlands or work for the Dutch civil service.[5][a]
Prisoners serving a term of more than one year are not eligible to vote. From 2009 onwards, mentally incapacitated citizens have regained the right to vote.[6]
The Netherlands uses a system ofparty-list proportional representation. Seats are allocated among the parties using theD'Hondt method[7] with anelection threshold of 0.67% (aHare quota).[8] Parties may choose to compete with different candidate lists in each of the country's twenty electoral circles. If a party competes with different candidate lists, the seats allocated to the party are subsequently allocated among its different candidate lists using thelargest remainders method.[9] The seats won by a list are first allocated to the candidates who, in preferential votes, have received at least 25% of the Hare quota (effectively ¼ of a seat or 0.17% of the total votes), regardless of their placement on the electoral list. If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received. Any remaining seats are allocated to candidates according to their position on the electoral list.[10][11]
From 1973 until 2017, parties were able to formelectoral alliances to increase their share of seats in parliament, allowing parties to overcome some of the bias of the D'Hondt method; however, this practice has since been discontinued.[12]
When a vacancy arises, the seat is offered to the next candidate on the candidate list to which the seat was originally allocated.[13]
After all seats are allocated, a series of negotiations take place in order to form a government that, usually, commands a majority in the chamber. Since 2012, the House of Representatives appoints a "scout" to ask the major party leaders about prospective coalitions. On basis of the scout's interviews, the House of Representatives then appoints aninformateur, who checks out possible coalitions, and aformateur, who leads negotiations. Before 2012, the informateur and formateur were appointed by themonarch. It typically takes a few months before theformateur is ready to accept a royal invitation to form a government and become prime minister. All cabinet members must resign from parliament, as the constitution does not allow a cabinet member to simultaneously hold a seat in the House of Representatives.
Due to the nationwide party-list system and the low election threshold, a typical House of Representatives has ten or more parties represented. Such fragmentation makes it nearly impossible for one party to win the 76 seats needed for a majority in the House of Representatives. Since the current party-list proportional representation system was introduced in 1917, no party has approached the number of seats needed for an outright majority. This fragmentation also makes it almost prohibitively difficult to win enough seats to govern alone. The highest number of seats won by a single party since then has been 54 out of 150, by the CDA in 1986 and 1989. Between 1891 and 1897, theLiberal Union was the last party to have an absolute majority of seats in the House of Representatives.[citation needed] All Dutch cabinets since then have been coalitions of two or more parties.
Between 1815 and 1992, the House of Representatives was seated in the former ballroom ofstadtholderWilliam V in the Binnenhof. This room had first been used as a meeting chamber in 1796 by theNational Assembly of the Batavian Republic.[14] In 1992 it moved to the newly constructed expansion of the Binnenhof complex byPi de Bruijn. This allowed more spacious seating arrangements, better public access and changed the layout from a classroom layout to a semi-circular layout. During the renovations of the Binnenhof complex (starting 2021) the House temporarily moved a few hundred metres to the former building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Bezuidenhoutseweg 67 where a temporary meeting room resembling the Binnenhof room.[15]
To be elected to the House of Representatives, a person must be over 18 and hold a Dutch passport.[16]
Historically, there have been 100 seats in the House of Representatives. In 1956, this number was increased to 150, at which it remains today.
To give an overview of the history of the House of Representatives, the figure on the right shows the seat distribution in the House from the first general elections after World War II (1946) to the most recent election. The left-wing parties are located towards the bottom, while the Christian parties are located in the center, and the right-wing parties towards the top. Occasionally, single-issue (or narrow-focus) parties have arisen, and these are shown at the extreme top. Vertical lines indicate general elections. Although these are generally held every four years, the resulting coalition governments do not always finish their term without a government crisis, which is often followed by new elections.
The composition of the House of Representatives as of the2025 general election is shown in the table below.
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| Politics of the Netherlands |
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| Group | Leader | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats 66 | Rob Jetten | 26 / 150 | |
| Party for Freedom | Geert Wilders | 26 / 150 | |
| People's Party for Freedom and Democracy | Dilan Yeşilgöz | 22 / 150 | |
| GroenLinks–PvdA | Jesse Klaver | 20 / 150 | |
| Christian Democratic Appeal | Henri Bontenbal | 18 / 150 | |
| JA21 | Joost Eerdmans | 9 / 150 | |
| Forum for Democracy | Lidewij de Vos | 7 / 150 | |
| Farmer–Citizen Movement | Caroline van der Plas | 4 / 150 | |
| DENK | Stephan van Baarle | 3 / 150 | |
| Reformed Political Party | Chris Stoffer | 3 / 150 | |
| Party for the Animals | Esther Ouwehand | 3 / 150 | |
| Christian Union | Mirjam Bikker | 3 / 150 | |
| Socialist Party | Jimmy Dijk | 3 / 150 | |
| 50Plus | Jan Struijs | 2 / 150 | |
| Volt Netherlands | Laurens Dassen | 1 / 150 | |
Parliamentary committees are set up for a specific substantive or procedural subject. The committees consult in so-called committee meetings. A standing committee is a committee set up to monitor a policy area of a ministry. They are defined in theRules of Procedure of the House of Representatives [nl]. Standing committees were established in 1953 to relieve the plenary of overly detailed discussions. In the period from the2023 Dutch general election, there are a total of fifteen standing committees. Except for theMinistry of General Affairs, there is a permanent committee for each ministry that deals with subjects in the field of that ministry. For some ministries, the portfolio is divided over several committees. In addition, there are standing committees without a ministry for European Affairs and Digital Affairs.
Lists of members of theStates General of the Netherlands | ||||||
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| Senate (upper house) |
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| House of Representatives (lower house) |
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| International | |
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| Other | |
52°4′47″N4°18′53″E / 52.07972°N 4.31472°E /52.07972; 4.31472
