Early general elections will be held in the Netherlands on 29 October 2025 to elect members of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

, after the Schoof cabinet resigned on 3 June 2025.

Background

The

2023 Dutch general election Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2023 to elect the members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands), House of Representatives. The elections had been expected to be held in 2025, but a snap election was ca ...

resulted in losses for all parties in the fourth Rutte cabinet. The

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( , PVV) is a right-wing populist, far-right political party in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is the founder, party leader, and sole registered member of the party. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Wilders' one-ma ...

(PVV) became the largest party in the House of Representatives for the first time and then formed a coalition with the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

(VVD),

New Social Contract New Social Contract ( ; NSC) is a centre to centre-right political party in the Netherlands founded by Pieter Omtzigt. History In early 2021, Omtzigt wrote the manifesto '' A New Social Contract'', with ideas for the Christian Democratic App ...

(NSC) and the

Farmer–Citizen Movement The Farmer–Citizen Movement ( ; BBB) is an agrarian and right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands. It is headquartered in Deventer, Overijssel. The current party leader is founder Caroline van der Plas, who has led it since its ...

(BBB). The Schoof cabinet with the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Dick Schoof Hendrikus Wilhelmus Maria "Dick" Schoof (born 8 March 1957) is a Dutch politician and civil servant serving as the prime minister of the Netherlands of the Schoof cabinet since 2 July 2024. Schoof previously worked as secretary-general of the M ...

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

was sworn in on 2 July 2024. On 3 June 2025, PVV left the coalition due to disagreements over asylum policy, leading to Schoof submitting the resignation of the cabinet. A snap election was called for 29 October 2025; originally, the next general election was scheduled for 15 March 2028. On 12 June 2025, the Labour Party and the

GroenLinks (, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...

agreed to participate with one shared candidate list again, and to merge their parties in 2026.

Electoral system

Pursuant to articles C.1, C.2 and C.3 of the electoral law, elections for the

take place every four years in March, unless a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Snap elections in parliamentary systems are often called to resolve a political impasse such as a hung parliament where no single political party has a ma ...

is called. The 150 members of the House of Representatives are elected by semi-open list

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 ...

. The number of seats per list is determined 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 ...

. A list must receive a number of votes equal to or exceeding the

Hare quota The Hare quota (sometimes called the simple, ideal, or Hamilton quota) is the number of voters represented by each legislator in an idealized system of proportional representation where every vote is used to elect someone. The Hare quota is eq ...

(1 full seat) in order to qualify for seat distribution, meaning there is an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

of 0.67%. Voters have the option to cast a preferential vote. The seats won by a list are first allocated to the candidates who, in preferential votes, have received at least 25% of the Hare quota (effectively ¼ of a seat or 0.17% of the total votes), 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. Any remaining seats are allocated to candidates according to their position on the electoral list.

Opinion polls

References

{{Future opinion polling

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 ...

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

General election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

Elections in Bonaire Elections in Saba (island) Elections in Sint Eustatius General elections in the Netherlands