Council advises Oct. 29 for next Dutch election, as Parliament demands urgency

The first realistic option to schedule the next general election in the Netherlands October 29, the Dutch Electoral Council said on Wednesday. That date is exactly 21 weeks away, and takes into account a variety of factors. However, parliamentarians have spent most of the day demanding more urgency after Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s first Cabinet collapsed on Tuesday.

The Tweede Kamer showed strong support for calls to organize new elections to as soon as possible now that Schoof’s Cabinet has fallen. A motion to that effect, submitted by GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans in the Tweede Kamer debate on the fall of the Cabinet, was adopted unanimously by the parties in the lower house.

The results of elections for the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament, leads to a period of power brokering and negotiations that result in the formation of a coalition, the selection of a candidate to become prime minister, and the composition of the next Cabinet. Once the Tweede Kamer has been dissolved, the new parliamentarians must take their seats 90 days later. Typically, elections take place about 75 days after the Tweede Kamer is dissolved, however, the lower house has not yet been dismissed.

The Electoral Council instead recommended a date at the end of October, which also gives municipalities the time they need to properly organize elections, the Council said. “In addition, political parties need time to prepare for the election,” the Council stated.

“And finally, we pay attention to holidays. All things considered, the Electoral Council sees Wednesday, October 29, as the first realistic option for the election.” The six-week school holiday period is staggered through three regions of the Netherlands. It begins on July 5 in the southern third of the country, July 12 in the northern regions, and July 19 in the central region.

The holiday period comes to a close on September 1. The advice was issued to caretaker Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Judith Uitermark.
Several dates were considered, but Wednesday, October 8, was ruled out because the nomination process would have to take place during the summer political recess. An election on October 15 or 22 was again deemed “less desirable” because of the autumn school holiday period.

The governing coalition fell apart after PVV leader Geert Wilders pulled his support over reaction to his demands for a series of ten strict policy changes regarding asylum, immigration and migration. The far-right political figure made the demands despite existing agreements with coalition parties VVD, NSC and BBB, and without regard for the fact that his own party was already responsible for asylum and migration policy initiatives from the Cabinet.

Although the Timmermans motion for holding elections as quickly as possible was adopted by the Tweede Kamer, caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof tapped the breaks. Schoof was cautious when discussing the timetable, mentioning various factors that require preparation time, like the registration of the parties, the logistical planning by municipalities, and vacation periods. “A careful preparation of elections is essential in our parliamentary democracy.” Despite this, he did not oppose the motion.

In the motion, it was requested that the Tweede Kamer be dissolved as quickly as possible and then for elections to be called “as quickly as the Electoral Act allows it.” The parties wrote that the Netherlands needs a government that can solve significant issues as quickly as possible.

Timmermans will likely need the VVD if he wants to govern after the election. GroenLinks-PvdA, the VVD, and the PVV each have around 30 seats in the polls. Left-wing or centrist parties that GroenLinks-PvdA can collaborate with are lower in the polls.

In the Peilingwijzer, which is a weighted average of various polls, it is stated that the CDA has 16 to 20 seats, and D66 has 10 to 12 seats. The SP (6 to 8) and the Partij voor de Dieren (5 to 7) follow this.

However, a collaboration between the two parties did not seem close on Wednesday as Timmermans and VVD leader Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius clashed during the debate.

Timmermans said that Yeşilgöz-Zegerius is responsible for the “most right-wing and also the worst Cabinet” that the Netherlands has ever had. He added that the Cabinet achieved nothing and felt that Yeşilgöz-Zegerius should have known this was going to happen.

The VVD leader responded by calling Timmermans arrogant, and “so elitist, so far removed from people.”