According to the exit polls in the provincial elections in the Netherlands, which affect the number of seats in the Senate, the Farmer Citizen Movement Party (BBB), which participated in the elections for the first time, received the most votes, while the number of seats in the senate of the government partners, which are in the minority in the current senate, will decrease.
In the country, 13.3 million voters went to the polls to elect 570 members of the 12 state assemblies.
The first provisional exit polls, which are not definitive, were released immediately after voting ended.
According to data from research firm Ipsos, the winner of the state election, which affects the number of seats in the Senate, was the BBB party, which participated in the election for the first time and has only one deputy in the House of Representatives.
“They already had very few seats, now they are almost nothing,” BBB party leader and MP Caroline van der Plas told public broadcaster NOS, adding that the coalition parties in the Senate should seriously negotiate with the BBB party.
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Noting that it would be a “scandal” if the coalition parties in the Senate negotiated with other parties, van der Plas said, “Then they would ignore a large part of the voters in the Netherlands. I am open to dialog with everyone. We are ready.”
The BBB Party was founded by the administrators of a Facebook group with 20 thousand members who started the hashtag “FarmerCitizenTweet” on social media in 2019, when farmer protests started in the country.
The far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD), which won the previous state elections, and the Christian Democratic Union (CDA), a coalition government partner, lost the most seats.
The number of seats in the current senate, where the coalition government of 4 parties headed by Prime Minister Mart Rutte is in the minority, will decrease from 32 to 24.
According to the exit polls in the senate elections to be held on May 30, which are determined by the votes of the members in the state parliaments, BBB has 15 seats, VVD 10, GL 8, PvdA 7, D66 6, CDA 5, far-right PVV 4, Animal Party (PvdD) 4, The CU is expected to get 3 seats, the Socialist Party (SP) 3, the FvD 2, the 50 Plus Party 1, the Reformist State Party (SGP) 1, the Independent Senate Group Party (OSF) 1, and the far-right JA21 Party, which participated in the state elections for the first time, 3 and the Volt Party 2.
Accordingly, the total number of seats of the far-right parties together with PVV, FvD and Ja21 will decrease from 17 to 9, and the number of seats of the coalition partners VVD, CDA, D66 and CU parties, which have 32 seats out of a total of 75 seats in the Senate, will decrease to 24.
According to the exit polls, it is seen that the votes of the Denk Party, which has one parliament member each in the provinces of North and South Holland and Utrecht, the majority of whose members are Turks and immigrants, decreased compared to the previous provincial elections. Accordingly, the Denk Party has no chance of winning a seat in the senate.
The situation of many candidates of Turkish origin competing in the elections will be largely determined by the announcement of the results of the preferential votes.
According to the country’s laws, senators are elected not directly by the people but by the votes of 570 members of the 12 state assemblies.
The 75 senators in the Senate have the power to approve and veto laws passed by the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives. Senate elections will be held on May 30.
In addition to the state elections, voters also cast ballots for the General Water Management Authority, which is responsible for the management of the country’s sea and river embankments, water levels and wastewater treatment.
