A third of the Dutch do not want wolves in the Netherlands

One in three Dutch people believes that wolves do not belong in the Netherlands. Drenthe and Flevoland residents, in particular, are against the presence of wolves. Kieskompas and the ANP concluded this based on a survey in which almost 15,000 Dutch people participated.

The number of Dutch people who believe the wolf does not belong in the Netherlands is just as high as last year. The share of wolf supporters has fallen from 41 percent to 36 percent in the last year. The rest have no opinion or do not know.

There has been a long-standing debate about the presence of wolves in the Netherlands. Earlier this week, a wolf bit a child in Leusden. In the same area, a dog was bitten earlier this month and presumably carried off by a wolf. In Drenthe, leaflets were posted earlier this week warning of the presence of wolves in nature reserves.

Drenthe is the only province in which more than half of the residents are against wolves. In Utrecht, Zuid-Holland, and Overijssel, less than a third of residents oppose the predator.

According to experts, there are currently nine wolf packs in the Netherlands, seven of which are in the Veluwe, one in central Drenthe, and one in the border area of Friesland, Drenthe, and Overijssel. In the future, the number of wolf packs in the Netherlands could increase to between 23 and 56, according to a study by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The survey shows that people's opinion on the wolf depends heavily on one's own voting behavior. Almost three-quarters of people who voted for the SGP in last November's parliamentary elections are against the wolf. Similarly, most of those who voted for the BBB (59 percent of voters) or the FvD (53 percent of voters) believe that the wolf does not belong in the Netherlands. In contrast, almost all PvdD, GL-PvdA, or Volt voters are "in favor" of the wolf, the study shows.