On the 15th of March 2017 the Dutch legislative election took place. Winner was the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) with 21.2 per cent. Geert Wilders from the Party for Freedom (PVV) achieved 13 per cent, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) 12.4 per cent, the Democrats 66 12.2 per cent, the Socialist party 9.1 per cent and the GreenLeft party 9.1 per cent. The social democratic PvdA got 5.7 per cent.
The campaign preceding the 2017 Dutch parliamentary election was marked by deep political polarization. With traditional right-wing issues, such as immigration and integration, dominating public debates, parties on the left have had a hard time to make their messages a central part of the political discussion. The horse-race between the incumbent VVD and the anti-immigrant PVV saw media attention centred around these two parties, with observes noting that it is very likely that Prime Minister Mark Rutte will maintain his post, given the electoral outcome.
As a result of PVV’s prolonged lead in the polls, many other parties have adapted to the anti-immigration and EU-critical message of the party. In particular, VVD has sent a message to “all Dutch citizens” to “act normal or leave”; the SP has voiced opposition to labour migration from newer eastern-EU member-states and the PvdA has stressed that the EU should guarantee that there is “equal pay for equal work” within its borders, or dismantle the common labour market. While PVV did not win the elections, it managed to dominate the public debate – even though Wilders hardly campaigned and the party’s manifesto was one page long –anti-immigration issues took a centre stage as both the traditional right wing parties (VVD and CDA) used similar rhetoric and adopted similar positions.
More than four years earlier, the 2012 elections resulted in a coalition between PvdA and VVD, and while the liberals managed to maintain the highest proportion of support, holding on to 33 of their 41 seats, the social democrats lost 29 of their 38 seats. The PvdA ended up with only 9 seats, which is by far the lowest proportion the social democrats obtained in the post-war period. Many of its previous supporters became disillusioned with the party’s concessions to its right-wing coalition partner. Since 2012 the coalition government introduced cuts to welfare entitlements for the unemployed and the disabled and transformed a long-standing universal student grant into a loan system. In addition, the government relaxed the rules for firing employees, introduced a step-wise pension age increase and reduced state funding for elderly care homes. Disillusioned with such policies, many left-wing voters abandoned the PvdA, opting for competitors to the left and even the centre-right. Overall, parties on the left received the lowest combined support since 1945. The decline of the social democrats was already evident in 2014, when PvdA suffered heavy losses in municipal elections and was ousted from office in Amsterdam for the first time in the post-war period.
The withering away of support for the PvdA in 2017 benefitted several other parties, with more progressive voters overwhelmingly migrating to the GL, which won 10 seats; traditional leftists migrating to the Socialist Party (SP, but in turn this party also lost one seat) and centrist voters migrating to the social liberal D66. Overall, the parties on the left (PvdA, SP and GL) lost 20 seats.
The other incumbent – the right-wing VVD, also suffered a substantial loss, though the liberals remained the largest party in parliament, clearly beating its main rival – the anti-immigrant PVV, as well and the traditionalist CDA.