Political parties spent much more on campaigns for 2021 parliamentary election

The Dutch political parties spent much more on their campaigns for the 2021 parliamentary election than on the previous one in 2017. GroenLinks, CDA, and D66, in particular, pushed more into their campaigns, with varying degrees of success, De Telegraaf reported based on political parties’ annual accounts.

GroenLinks increased its campaign budget by nearly 2 million euros, spending 850,000 euros in 2017 and 2.8 million euros last year. The extra budget didn’t have the desired effect. The green party’s number of parliamentary seats almost halved, dropping from 14 to 8.

The CDA increased its campaign budget by over 2 million euros, also with disappointing results. The Christian democrats lost four seats in last year’s election, dropping from 19 to 15.

The D66 nearly doubled its campaign budget, from 1.6 million to 3.1 million euros. The increased budget worked out for the D66. The party won five seats last year, going from 19 to 24 and becoming the second-largest party in the Tweede Kamer.

Other parties spent a few hundred thousand euros more on their election campaigns. According to the newspaper, they funded the extra campaign budget with more subsidies.