The Netherlands goes to the polls for the 30th time this century
The Netherlands will go to the polls nationwide on Wednesday for the thirtieth time since the beginning of the century. Three times it involved a national referendum, the other times there were elections. Local referenda and redistricting elections are not included.
Six times this century, the Netherlands voted for municipal councils. This included the first election of this century, on March 6, 2002. This led to a major victory for local protest parties, such as Leefbaar Rotterdam by Pim Fortuyn. The seventh local elections will be in March next year.
The first national referendum was held in 2005. The Dutch were then allowed to speak out about a treaty for a European constitution. It was an advisory referendum, which meant that the cabinet was not obliged to accept the result. More than 61 percent of voters voted against. French voters also rejected the treaty. Instead of the constitution, a Treaty of Lisbon was introduced. In 2016, the Netherlands voted against a European association treaty with Ukraine, and in 2017 against the expansion of the powers of intelligence and security services (the so-called drag law).
