Dutch general election, 2003

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Elections in the Netherlands for the Tweede Kamer of Parliament

1 Introduction
2 National Summary
3 Parties
4 Consequences

[edit] Introduction

The Dutch general election of 2003 held on January 22, 2003 was held after the resignation of the first Balkenende cabinet on October 16, 2002. The election was focused on LPF, the new party of late Pim Fortuyn.

In the early days of the campaign the CDA of incumbent prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the VVD, the smallest coalition party, saw a major lead.

After TV debates the PvdA (which experienced a humiliating defeat in the 2002 general election) of opposition leader Wouter Bos caught up, overtaking the VVD and making a comeback. The PvdA also held a leadership election which got the party considerable attention.

The LPF lost as spectacularly as it won in 2002: it dropped from 26 to 8 seats.

The exciting race of which party would become the greatest was eventually won by the CDA, who went from 43 to 44 seats, which meant a continuation of Balkenende’s career as prime minister.

The small parties on both the left and right side did not experience many changes. Several other parties (amongst them Leefbaar Nederland, a 2002 newcomer) didn’t manage to get over the threshold and thus gained no seats. They aren’t listed here.

[edit] National Summary

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 22 January 2003 Netherlands Second Chamber **election results**
Parties	Lijsttrekker	Votes	Seats	Vote %	Seat %
Christian Democratic Appeal (Christen-Democratisch Appèl)	Jan Peter Balkenende	2,763,480	44	28.6	29.3
Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid)	Wouter Bos	2,631,363	42	27.3	28.0
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie)	Gerrit Zalm	1,728,707	28	17.9	18.7
Socialist Party (Socialistische Partij)	Jan Marijnissen	609,723	9	6.3	6.0
List Pim Fortuyn (Lijst Pim Fortuyn)	Mat Herben	549,975	8	5.7	5.3
Green Left (GroenLinks)	Femke Halsema	495,802	8	5.1	5.3
Democrats 66 (Democraten 66)	Thom de Graaf	393,333	6	4.1	4.0
Christian Union (ChristenUnie)	André Rouvoet	204,694	3	2.1	2.0
Political Reformed Party (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij)	Bas van der Vlies	150,305	2	1.6	1.3
Total (turnout 80.0 %)		9,654,475	150	98.7	100.0

Final election result, number of seats per party in the Second Chamber

[edit] Parties

Christian Democratic Appeal (Christen-Democratisch Appèl, CDA)
Christian Union (ChristenUnie, CU)
Democrats 66 (Democraten 66, D66)
Green Left (GroenLinks, GL)
Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)
List Pim Fortuyn (Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF)
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD)
Political Reformed Party (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP)
Socialist Party (Socialistische Partij, SP)

[edit] Consequences

After severe disagreements in the formation of a CDA-PvdA cabinet, a CDA-VVD-D66 cabinet was formed on May 27, 2003, with Balkenende as prime minister.

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