An election for

Members of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

representing Netherlands constituency for the 1979–1984 term of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

was held on 7 June 1979. It was part of the wider 1979 European election.

Electorate system

The ten seats were elected using

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

, with seats allocated using the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

. Voting rights were given to all citizens who were allowed to vote in Dutch parliament elections, Dutch citizens resident in other member states and did not already have voting rights for the Dutch Parliament elections and citizens of other member states who lived in the Netherlands, provided their home country granted similar rights.

Campaign

The Labour Party and

Political Party of Radicals The Political Party of Radicals (, PPR) was a progressive Christian (''radicaal-christelijke'') and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to for ...

formed an

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

Results

Dutch political parties

Four parties were able to win seats: the conservative liberal

VVD The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right that tries to promote private enterprise and ...

, the progressive liberal D66, the Christian-democratic CDA and the social-democratic Labour Party. Five other nationally represented parties compete but are unable to win seats. 58.12% of the Dutch population turned out on election day.

European groups

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11" , , - , style="background-color:#E9E9E9;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;" colspan="3", European group !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , Seats 1979 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

, style="text-align:left;" , EPP , style="text-align:right;" , 10 , - , , style="text-align:left;" , Confederation of Socialist Parties , style="text-align:left;" , SOC , style="text-align:right;" , 9 , - , style="background-color:gold;" width=0.3em, , style="text-align:left;" , European Liberal Democrats , style="text-align:left;" , LD , style="text-align:right;" , 4 , - , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Non-Inscrits Non-attached members, also known by the French term (, NI), are members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who do not belong to one of the recognised political groups, which as May 2025 consisted of 8 groups ranging between far-left and fa ...

, style="text-align:left;" , NI , style="text-align:right;" , 2 , - , width="350" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9" colspan="3", , width="30" style="text-align:right;background-color:#E9E9E9", 25

References

{{Dutch elections

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

European Parliament elections in the Netherlands 1979 elections in the Netherlands