Dutch parties not spending much on European election campaigns; SGP spent the most

The Dutch political parties have, so far, not spent much money campaigning for the European Parliament elections, which is not unusual. The conservative-Christian party SGP has spent the most on a campaign, the Volkskrant reports based on figures from the research agency Nielsen. Netherlands residents will go to the polls on June 6.

In the fourth, third, and second week before the European Parliament elections, Dutch parties spent a gross of 215,000 euros on election campaigns. That is quite a bit more than in 2019, when campaign spending amounted to 72,000 euros in that period, but significantly less than the campaign budgets for other elections.

For the parliamentary elections in November, for example, Dutch parties spent 3.3 million euros on their campaigns in the fourth, third, and second weeks before going to the polls. Dutch parties tend to spend the least on the European elections. The most campaign money goes toward the parliamentary elections, followed by municipal elections and provincial elections.

So far, the SGP has spent the most campaigning for the European Parliament elections (€84,000), followed by the D66 (€52,300), VVD (€42,700), and ChrisenUnie (€28,000). SGP also spent the most in 2019. Some parties, like GroenLinks-PvdA and CDA, have not yet spent any money on campaigns for this election.