2021 Hennish federal election

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2021 Hennish federal election
Hennehouwe
← 2017 3 September 2021 2025 →

All 180 seats in the Second Chamber
91 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats
SAP Rupert van Bleiswijk 49
VDP Eva Kaestel 40
NVP Fabian van Aitzema 36
MdP Klaas-Jan Jagers 15
Groen Bart van Veen & Lise Xi 11
Links Dirk Smolders 7
VSD Margje Westerveld 6
PP Gaspard Toussaint 6
ABP Sharon Visscher 5
LIVE Elise Dumont Aguas 2
Independents 3
Hennehouwe map chamber blank.svg
Incumbent Premier
Informal meeting of ministers responsible for development (FAC). Arrivals Alexander De Croo (36766610160) (cropped2).jpg Rupert van Bleiswijk
SAP

Federal elections will be held in Hennehouwe on 3 September 2021 to elect all 180 members of the 28th Second Chamber. The election was formally called by Premier Rupert van Bleiswijk on 21 July 2021, following assent by Stadtholder Adriaan Wilhelm Paulus.

Background

The outcome of the previous federal election, held in 2017, resulted in the imcumbent centre-right coalition, led by the National People's Party (NVP), being replaced by a "purple" grand coalition of the Socialist Labour Party (SAP) and the Progressive Democratic Party (VDP). The leader of the SAP, Rupert van Bleiswijk, became Premier, replacing Michiel Hagan of the NVP. The coalition held 89 of the 180 seats in the Second Chamber, two seats short of an overall majority. As a result, confidence and supply arrangements with the Agrarian–Farmer's Party (ABP) and the Party for the Petois (PP) were necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the government.

Of the ten parties represented in the outgoing Second Chamber, six have different leaders going into the 2021 election than they had in the previous election. Dirk Klaver was initially named the leader of the NVP in November 2017, but resigned in August 2019 following a leadership challange in the wake of poor election results, including the Euclean Parliament elections held earlier that year. He was replaced by current leader Fabian van Aitzema in September 2019. The Greens continued their policy of naming one man and one woman as co-leaders, electing Bart van Veen and Lise Xi to the joint position in March 2019. The leadership of The Left is renewed every year at its party conference, with Dirk Smolders being elected every year since 2018. Margje Westerveld and Sharon Visscher were elected as leaders of the People's Party for Sotirian Democracy (VSD) and ABP respectively – the first women to hold both roles. Sam Tarokh led the LIVE party from 2020 until July 2021, when he was ousted during party infighting. Tarokh subsequently resigned from the party and confirmed he would not run for the party in the upcoming election. On 19 July 2021, two days before the beginning of the campaign, the party named Elise Dumont Aguas as its new leader.

Date

Article 42.2 of the Basic Law (Algemene Wet) states that a new Second Chamber shall be elected no later than 28 days after the fourth anniversary of the first sitting of the current Second Chamber, excluding public holidays, and that the date of the election must be held no less than 28 days but no more than 56 days after the dissolution of the pevious Chamber. Article 42.3 states that the first sitting of the new Chamber must occur within 28 days after the election date, excluding public holidays.

The Electoral Law of 2000 legislates for fixed-term election dates, automatically scheduling an election for the first Friday of September four years after the previous election, or the second Friday of September if the former falls on a public holiday. An election prior to the fixed date can be called for in the Chamber via a two-thirds supermajority vote. Under the Law, the election was automatically scheduled for 3 September 2021.

Electoral system

The 180 members of the Second Chamber are elected by open list proportional representation in 10 multi-member constituencies corresponding to the 10 regions of Hennehouwe, with seats allocated according to the Berger method.

There is no electoral threshold, meaning the effective threshold depends on the size of the region: in the smallest region, Oudkessel-Witburg (7 seats), the effective threshold is around 10%, whilst in the largest region, Flamia (40 seats), it is closer to 2-2.5%. Seats are allocated to the regions in proportion to population, with a review of seat distribution carried out one year after the last census. The allocation of seats remains unchanged from the 2017 election.

For an outright majority in the Chamber, a party (or coalition of parties) must have at least 91 seats. Due to the nature of Hennehouwe's multi-party system, it is rare for any one party to singlehandedly obtain a parliamentary majority, and thus coalitions and/or agreements between different parties is necessary.

Electors vote by casting a preference for a personal candidate from their chosen list, rather than voting for a party list outright. If a candidate receives a quota of either 20% of 1/xth of votes (x equalling the number of seats in that region) or 33% of the total votes for their own list, they will bypass the rest of the list in the allocation of seats regardless of their placement on the electoral list. If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received. Otherwise, the remaining seats are allocated according to the placement of candidates on the list. In regions with more than 24 seats, parties are limited to a maximum number of candidates equating to two-thirds the total number of seats. Due to the current distribution of seats, only Flamia and Lower Stegeren are affected by this change. In all other regions, the maximum number of candidates on a list is the total number of seats.

Region Seats
Flamia 40
Geeland 9
Grotevlakte 19
Lower Stegeren 32
Molenburg 13
Oudkessel-Witburg 7
Reekland 12
s'Holle 21
Upper Stegeren 15
Zilverzee 12
 Hennehouwe 180

Parties and leaders

In order to participate in the elections, a party or list of candidates must provide declarations of support by 0.05% of all votes cast in the previous election in each region contested, as well as a deposit of €1,800 in each region contested. This deposit is refunded to lists who obtain 1% of the vote in the region contested.

On 12 August 2021, the Electoral Commission announced that 31 parties had met the requirements to participate in the elections in at least one region. These include all ten parties represented in the outgoing legislature, as well as 21 other lists. Thirteen parties will contest all ten regions.

Parties represented in the 27th Second Chamber
Party Leader Main ideology Position 2017 result Current
seats
Regions
contesting
Votes (%) Seats
Socialist Labour Party SAP Rupert van Bleiswijk Social democracy Centre-left 23.2%
49 / 180
49 / 180
10
Progressive Democratic Party VDP Eva Kaestal Social liberalism Centre 19.0%
40 / 180
40 / 180
10
National People's Party NVP Fabian van Aitzema Conservatism Centre-right 18.0%
36 / 180
36 / 180
10
Patriot's March MdP Klaas-Jan Jagers Right-wing populism Right-wing to far-right 9.6%
16 / 180
15 / 180
10
Green Party Groen Bart van Veen & Lise Xi Green politics Centre-left 6.8%
11 / 180
11 / 180
10
The Left Links Dirk Smolders Democratic socialism Left-wing 5.6%
7 / 180
7 / 180
10
People's Party for Sotirian Democracy VSD Margje Westerveld Sotirian right Centre-right to right-wing 4.9%
6 / 180
6 / 180
10
Party for the Petois PP Gaspard Toussaint Petois minority interests Centre 2.9%
6 / 180
6 / 180
3
Agrarian–Farmer's Party ABP Sharon Visscher Agrarianism Centre-right 3.6%
5 / 180
5 / 180
10
LIVE – The Liberal Union LIVE Elise Dumont Aguas Classical liberalism Centre to centre-right 3.5%
4 / 180
2 / 180
10
Independents Onaf.
0 / 180
3 / 180

The following parties do not currently have any seats in the legislature, but are confirmed to be competing in the election.

Extra-parliamentary parties participating in the 2021 federal election
Party Leader Main ideology Position 2017 result Regions
contesting
Votes (%)
Independent Hennish Section of the Workers' International OHSAI Pieter Godeke Council communism Far-left 0.2% 10
Oopsie Woopsie Party owo Tchuu Tchuu Joke party Syncretic 0.2% 10
Heart of Hennehouwe HvH Pieter Veer Populism Right-wing did not exist 10
Vox Hennehouwe Vox Christian Asscher Euclofederalism Centre did not exist 10
Catholic Labour Party KAP Leendert Wijgmonds Social conservatism Centre-right to right-wing 0.3% 8
Red Party Rode Ana Joshi & Max van Daal Council communism Far-left did not exist 8
Future Hennehouwe Future Ellen Peterson Radical centrism Centre 0.7% 7
Party for the Senior Citizens PvdB Diana De Wever Pensioners' interests Centre 0.2% 7
Green Conservatives GC Hanneke Schrotenboer Green conservatism Centre-right did not exist 7
Sustainable Hennehouwe DH Alessia Simonini Sustainability Centre-left did not exist 7
The V Party DeV Annamieke de Burg Animal welfare Left-wing 0.3% 6
Sotirian Confessional Union SCU Jan-Hendrik van Erp Social conservatism Right-wing 0.1% 5
Basic Income Party BIP Inès De Loof Universal basic income Centre-left did not exist 5
For Freedom VV Philippe Steenput Right-wing populism Far-right did not exist 5
Direct Democracy Now! DDNU Rinus Rhezerkamp Direct democracy Centre 0.1% 4
Hennish Brotherhood HB Stefaan Keijzer Hennish nationalism Far-right 0.1% 4
Liberal Party LP Benjamin Perak Libertarianism Right-wing 0.1% 4
Vive le Petois Vive Florent Deschamps Petois minority interests Centre-left did not exist 3
Spiritus Spir Siske Schumer-Pagavi Humanism Syncretic did not exist 2
The 99% – For The Many 99% Femke Asscher Left-wing populism Left-wing did not exist 2
Dermaux List LD Alan Dermaux Regionalism Centre did not exist 1

Campaign

Debates

Hennish federal election debates, 2021
Date Organisers Channel     P  Present    A  Absent invitee   NI  Non-invitee  Notes
SAP VDP NVP MdP Groen Links VSD PP ABP LIVE HvH
12 August Mediacentre ATV P
van Bleiswijk
P
Kaestel
P
van Aitzema
P
Jagers
P
van Veen
P
Smolders
P
Westerveld
P
Toussaint
P
Visscher
P
Dumont Aguas
NI
17 August Nous Nous
(Estmerish)
P
de Boer
P
Martin
P
Brugmans
P
Jakobs-Davidson
P
Xi
NI NI NI NI NI NI Debate in Estmerish.
18 August Nous
(Gaullican)
P
van Bleiswijk
P
Kaestel
P
Dior
P
Rousseau
P
van Veen
NI NI P
Toussaint
NI P
Dumont Aguas
NI Debate in Gaullican.
23 August HNO De Eerste P
van Bleiswijk
P
Kaestel
P
van Aitzema
P
Jagers
P
Xi
P
Smolders
P
Westerveld
P
Toussaint
P
Visscher
P
Dumont Aguas
P
Veer
Split into two debates of six and five.
30 August HNO De Tweede NI NI NI NI NI P
Smolders
P
Westerveld
P
Toussaint
P
Visscher
P
Dumont Aguas
P
Veer
31 August HNO,
Mediacentre
De Eerste,
ATV
P
van Bleiswijk
P
Kaestel
P
van Aitzema
P
Jagers
P
Xi
NI NI NI NI NI NI

Endorsements

Individuals

Socialist Labour Party
Progressive Democratic Party
National People's Party
Patriot's March
Green Party

Organisations and political parties

Socialist Labour Party
Progressive Democratic Party
National People's Party
Patriot's March
Green Party

Opinion polls

Graphical summary of the average of polls conducted for the federal election since September 2017.
  1. "@halivarzoe". Chirper. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  2. "@AZThingspeaker". Chirper. 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.