Nearly half of Dutch MEPs elected last week are women
Nearly half of the politicians who will soon represent the Netherlands in the new European Parliament are women. Of the total 26 Dutch European Parliamentarians, 12 are women. At 46.2 percent it is the highest percentage of female Dutch MEPs since 2009, NOS reports, and an increase from 34.6 percent.
Three of the female Dutch European Parliamentarians were elected by preferential votes, including Kim van Sparrentak of GroenLinks, Samira Rafaela of the D66, and Liesje Schreinemacher of the VVD. For Rafeala and Schreinemacher, their seats in the European Parliament came at the expense of a higher-ranking male candidate, according to the preliminary results from the constituencies.
Two women who were already guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament based on the election results, also received more votes than higher ranking men on their parties' electoral list. Annie Shcreijer (CDA) won a seat on her own, and Kati Piri won more votes than Paul Tang, who was third on the PvdA electoral list.
Action group Stem op een Vrouw, which translates to 'Vote for a Woman' in English, is pleased with how many women will soon represent the Netherlands in Europe. "This is a clear signal to political parties that voters consider a good gender balance on the electoral list to be important", Iris Bos of the action group said to NOS.
