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Even if the Freedom Party had to leave the position of the biggest party in the Dutch Lower House to the Liberal-Conservatives of the VVD, the outcome of [40] the 2017 Dutch elections was quite spectacular in several respects. 38 of the 150 seats in parliament (i.e. more than 25%) changed party. Notably, 29 of the seats that changed party came from the biggest loser of the elections, the Labour Party (PvdA) which, after having served a difficult 4-year terms as junior partner in the government, saw its seat share crumble from 38 to a mere 9 seats. Notably, the other major loser was its senior partner, Mark Rutte’s VVD, which lost 8 seats but nevertheless remained the biggest party with 33 seats in parliament – indeed, the smallest biggest party the Netherlands has ever seen.

As said, Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party was among the winners and ended second with 20 seats coming from 15. The Christian-Democrats even won one seat more, which got them to 19 seats, the same number that the progressive liberals of D66 secured coming from 12 seats in 2012. The biggest gains were however secured by the Greens of GroenLinks who revenged their pitiful 4 seats result in 2012 by moving up to a, for them, unprecedented number of 14 seats, the same number as their more left-wing brethren from the Socialist Party who got to 14 seats by losing one. While the Christian-conservative parties, Christian-Union and the Calvinists of the SGP remained stable at 5 and, respectively, 3 seats, there was more turmoil among the other smaller parties. Notably, the Party for the Animals and the Party for the Pensioners (50+) both went up from the two seats they held previously, the Animal Party to 5 and 50+ to 4 seats. Finally, two parties succeeded in entering parliament for the first time: the migrants-oriented party DenK with three seats and the conservative anti-establishment and anti-Europe party, Forum for Democracy with two.

Table 1: After election seat share of parties in Dutch Lower House
Parties	2010	2012	2017
VVD (Conservative Liberals)	31	41	33
PvdA (Labour Party)	30	38	9
CDA (Christian-Democrats)	21	13	19
PVV (Freedom Party)	24	15	20
D66 (Progressive Liberals)	10	12	19
SP (Socialist Party)	15	15	14
GroenLinks (Greens)	10	4	14
ChristenUnie (Christian-Union)	5	5	5
SGP (Calvinist Party)	2	3	3
PvdD (Party for the Animals)	2	2	5
50PLUS (pensioners party)		2	4
DenK (Diversity Movement)			3
Forum voor Democratie (Forum for Democracy)			2
Total seats	150	150	150
Number of parties	10	11	13

[41] With this outcome, the formation of the new Dutch government was bound to take considerable time. By all indications, the core of the government coalition would need to be formed by the VVD, the CDA and D66. Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party was ruled out as a credible coalition partners by all parties, including Wilders’ former party, the VVD. In turn, its major losses also ruled the PvdA out as a credible partner.

Still, the combination VVD-CDA-D66 falls 5 seats short of the absolute majority of 76 seats that is usually needed for a stable government in the Netherlands. Hence, a fourth partner was needed. While attempts to involve GroenLinks, as the major election winner, into the coalition failed, negotiations turned to the Christian-Union. Negotiations lasted over the summer of 2017, but on 26 October a new majority government was inaugurated with the support of the four parties: VVD, CDA, D66 and the Christian-Union.