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Dutch EP elections: higher voter turnout, anti-EU protest voting

Published 10 June 2004 - Updated 29 January 2010
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EU whistleblower Paul van Buitenen is the big protest winner of the Dutch European Parliament elections, voters catapulting the Commission rebel to Brussels with two seats.

One of the most remarkable results of the Dutch EP elections is the higher turnout (39.1 per cent in comparison to the second lowest result in 1999 - 29.9).

Overall, the Christian-Democrats party of Prime Minister Balkenende has managed to remain the biggest party, just ahead of the Social-Democrats. The centre-liberal VVD has lost two seats (from six to four), the third coalition partner left-liberal D66 holds on to one seat (losing one). The Greens (Groen Links) lost two seats (from four) and SP (leftist socialists) and Christen Unie/SGP (religious-conservative) got two seats each.

The party of EU whistleblower Paul van Buitenen (Europa Transparant) has produced a surprise comparable to that achieved by the late Pim Fortuyn a few years ago. Mr van Buitenen managed to mobilise voter protest against fraud at EU level without having a real party or money for a real campaign. His party will get two seats in the European Parliament, where he is likely to settle in a future eurosceptics' group.

Results of the Dutch EP elections (27 seats):

Party 1999 2004
CDA 9 7
PvdA 6 7
VVD 6 4
Groen Links 4 2
SP 1 2
Christen Unie/SGP 2 2
Europa Transparant 0 2
D66 2 1

The British, who also voted on Thursday 10 June, have decided not to publish any results yet. However in the local elections held on the same day, Labour received a terrible blow coming only third after the Conservatives and the winning Liberal Democrats. The Tories are not expected to benefit significantly from this Labour weakness in the European elections as most of their potential gains are set to go to the rightist UK Independence Party.

 

Next steps: 
  • The next countries to vote on Friday for the European Parliament are Ireland and the Czech Republic

 

Background: 
The Dutch government has challenged the Commission by making results of its 10 June European Parliament vote public in spite of EU rules that they can only be published on Sunday 13 June.

 

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