European election results confirm 8 seats for GL-PvdA, 6 for PVV

The official results of the European Parliament elections are in and the seat division is the same as in the final prognosis on June 10, the Electoral Council reported. GroenLinks-PvdA is the largest Dutch party with 8 seats in the European Parliament, followed by the PVV with 6 and VVD with 4. PVV leader Geert Wilders got a seat through preferential votes.

The turnout for the election was 46.2 percent, with 6,253,467 of the 13,542,363 eligible voters casting their vote. A total of 21,269 ballots were not counted because they were invalid. Nearly 9,700 were simply left blank, while over 11,600 were filled out incorrectly. The five municipalities experimenting with the smaller ballot had more invalid votes - 0.74 percent of votes were invalid, compared to 0.18 percent in the rest of the Netherlands.

“The number of Dutch people abroad who were registered as voters was 90,357. Of these, 44,345 voters (49.1%) cast a (valid) mail-in ballot abroad,” the Electoral Council said.

Twenty Dutch parties participated in the election. Ten of them got enough votes for one of the 31 Dutch seats in the European Parliament. For the first time, the Netherlands elected more women than men to the European Parliament. Of the 31 seats, 16 went to women and 15 to men.

Four candidates got a seat based on preferential votes, including PVV leader Geert Wilders - they got enough preferential votes to move them up their party’s candidate list to the point where they were eligible for a seat. The candidates have 10 days to decide whether to accept the appointment. If they don’t, the Electoral Council will appoint the next candidate. According to the European Parliament rules, Wilders is allowed to hold a seat in both the European Parliament and the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, at the same time.

Nine candidates got enough preferential votes to get a seat in the European Parliament but did not get one because their party did not win seats.

“We believe the preparation, election, and counting went smoothly. The result is reliable,” Wim Kuijken, chairman of the Electoral Council, said.

Dutch seats in the European Parliament after the 2024 election: