Dutch party membership hits 448,000, highest since 1980s
The number of Dutch citizens holding membership in political parties has reached levels not seen since the mid-1980s, according to a report released Friday by the Documentation Centre for Dutch Political Parties at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
As of January 1, 2026, combined party membership totaled 448,100, an increase of more than 57,000 over the previous year, NRC reports. For decades, fewer than 400,000 people in the Netherlands held membership in any political party.
Forum voor Democratie, a radical-right party, remains the largest with over 70,000 members. The party submitted an accountant’s statement confirming its reported membership, the center said. The Party for Freedom (PVV), which holds the most seats among radical parties in the Tweede Kamer with 19 seats, is not included in the membership data because only founder Geert Wilders is a member.
Almost all parties with seats in the Tweede Kamer gained members over the past year. Exceptions include the NSC, founded by Pieter Omtzigt, which lost one-third of its members after exiting parliament in November, and BBB, which saw its membership drop by 7.9 percent.
The largest growth, both in relative and absolute terms, occurred at GroenLinks, the left-progressive party. GroenLinks added 16,258 members, slightly more than the Labour Party (PvdA). Many of these were dual memberships ahead of a planned summer merger between the two parties. GroenLinks currently has around 62,000 members, while PvdA has just over 64,000. Election winner D66 added 25 percent more members, making it the fourth-largest party by membership.
Carla Hoetink, historian and director of the Documentation Centre, attributed the membership surge to the October 2025 Tweede Kamer elections, noting that parties performed “relatively well” and “media attention was especially high.” She added, “Yet the increase over the past year was particularly large, even though, unlike in 2021 (BBB) and 2023 (NSC), no new parties broke through.”
