Dutch general election, 2003

Dutch general election, 2003

22 January 2003
Turnout	80.0%
Party Leader % Seats ± CDA Jan Peter Balkenende 28.6% 44 +1 PvdA Wouter Bos 27.2% 42 +19 VVD Gerrit Zalm 17.9% 28 +4 SP Jan Marijnissen 6.3% 9 0 LPF Mat Herben 5.6% 8 -18 GL Femke Halsema 5.1% 8 -2 D66 Thom de Graaf 4.0% 6 -1 CU André Rouvoet 2.1% 3 -1 SGP Bas van der Vlies 1.5% 2 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Jan Peter Balkenende CDA Jan Peter Balkenende CDA

Strongest political party by municipality

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.

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.

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

Elections and referendums in the Netherlands
General elections	1848 1850 1852 1853 1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 (Jun) 1866 (Oct) 1868 1869 1871 1873 1875 1877 1879 1881 1883 1884 1886 1887 1888 1891 1894 1897 1901 1905 1909 1913 1917 1918 1922 1925 1929 1933 1937 1946 1948 1952 1956 1959 1963 1967 1971 1972 1977 1981 1982 1986 1989 1994 1998 2002 2003 2006 2010 2012 2017
Provincial elections	2007 2011 2015
Municipal elections	2006 2010 2014
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1797 1798 1801 1805 2005 2016
See also: Elections and referendums in Aruba Bonaire Curaçao Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten