Over half of left-wing voters voting GL-PvdA to prevent right-wing Cabinet

Over half of the people who plan to vote for GroenLinks-PvdA on Wednesday are “tactical voters.” They’re not necessarily voting for the party closest to them but hope to use their vote to influence the coalition formation. With right-wing parties NSC, VVD, and PVV doing well in the polls, left-wing voters are voting strategically to try and prevent a right-wing Cabinet, EenVandaag reports after polling 30,000 members of its opinion panel.

“I would actually like to vote SP, but in the end, I choose GL-PvdA because this party can become the largest. The SP is nowhere near that,” one voter said.

The same applies to many Volt and D66 voters. “Volt is closest to my preference, but I vote GL-PvdA. I hope they become the largest (and therefore not the VVD) and that this reduces the risk of a right-wing Cabinet.”

These votes obviously come at the expense of other parties on the left. According to Maurice de Hond’s latest poll from Saturday, the D66 stands at eight virtual seats in parliament, down from 24 gained in the 2021 election. SP drops four seats to five. PvdD is down one to five. Volt still managed to climb one seat to four.

The tactical votes haven’t yet gotten Frans Timmermans’ red-green combination to the top of the polls. GroenLinks-PvdA currently stands at 23 seats in the poll. The VVD and PVV are the largest, with 26 each. NSC also has 23 seats. With the BBB’s seven seats, they can achieve a right-wing majority in parliament.

But according to EenVandaag, there’s still hope. Many left-wing voters said they intend to vote for their party of preference but may go with GroenLinks-PvdA at the last minute. “I actually just want to vote for the SP, but I don’t rule out switching if right-wing parties seem to become really big in the coming days,” one voter told the program.