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General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 January 2003.^[1]

Background

The election was held following the resignation of the first Balkenende cabinet on 16 October 2002 after conflicts attributed to the LPF, the new party of the already deceased 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 had experienced a landslide defeat in the 2002 general election) of opposition leader Wouter Bos caught up, overtaking the VVD and regaining some of the territory lost in the previous election. The PvdA also held a leadership election which got the party considerable attention.

Results

The LPF lost as spectacularly as it won in 2002, with its seat count dropping from 26 to 8. Commentators attributed the result to voters feeling that the LPF had become rudderless without its original leader and that the government had already implemented some of its policies, but argued disaffected LPF supporters would still back an "anti-establishment" party if a viable option was available.

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

Most of the smaller parties on both the left and right side did not experience significant changes. Several other parties (among them Leefbaar Nederland, a 2002 newcomer) didn't manage to get over the threshold and thus gained no seats. They are not listed here.

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

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Appeal	2,763,480	28.62	44	+1
	Labour Party	2,631,363	27.26	42	+19
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,728,707	17.91	28	+4
	Socialist Party	609,723	6.32	9	0
	Pim Fortuyn List	549,975	5.70	8	–18
	GroenLinks	495,802	5.14	8	–2
	Democrats 66	393,333	4.07	6	–1
	Christian Union	204,694	2.12	3	–1
	Reformed Political Party	150,305	1.56	2	0
	Party for the Animals	47,754	0.49	0	New
	Livable Netherlands	38,894	0.40	0	–2
	Party of the Future	13,845	0.14	0	0
	Ratelband List	9,045	0.09	0	New
	Durable Netherlands	7,271	0.08	0	0
	New Communist Party of the Netherlands	4,854	0.05	0	New
	DeConservatieven.nl	2,521	0.03	0	New
	Progressive Integration Party	1,623	0.02	0	New
	Alliance for Renewal and Democracy	990	0.01	0	New
	Veldhoen List	296	0.00	0	New
Total		9,654,475	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		9,654,475	99.87
Invalid/blank votes		12,127	0.13
Total votes		9,666,602	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		12,076,711	80.04
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province^[2]

Province	CDA	PvdA	VVD	SP	LPF	GL	D66	CU	SGP	Others
Drenthe	24.8	37.8	16.8	5.1	3.8	4.1	3.4	2.9	0.3	1.0
Flevoland	24.7	25.5	21.3	5.4	7.0	4.8	4.1	3.6	2.1	1.5
Friesland	32.0	33.5	12.6	6.0	3.7	4.5	2.8	3.2	0.5	1.2
Gelderland	31.6	26.6	16.5	5.8	4.2	5.1	3.6	2.5	2.9	1.2
Groningen	20.6	39.6	13.0	7.3	3.4	6.0	3.9	4.7	0.3	1.2
Limburg	37.5	26.6	14.1	7.2	5.3	4.5	2.9	0.3	0.0	1.6
North Brabant	33.9	23.6	18.2	8.4	5.6	4.2	3.6	0.6	0.4	1.5
North Holland	21.1	29.0	21.5	7.0	6.0	6.9	5.7	1.0	0.2	1.6
Overijssel	36.6	27.3	13.5	4.9	3.4	4.2	3.0	4.4	2.1	1.6
South Holland	24.9	25.9	19.8	5.3	8.7	4.7	4.3	2.2	2.5	1.7
Utrecht	27.3	23.5	20.4	5.9	4.8	6.7	5.2	3.1	2.0	1.1
Zeeland	32.0	23.8	15.7	5.0	5.3	3.8	2.7	2.9	7.7	1.1

Further reading

• Van Holsteyn, Joop J. M.; Galen A. Irwin (January 2004). "The Dutch parliamentary elections of 2003". West European Politics. 27 (1): 157–164. doi:10.1080/01402380412331280853.

References