2006 Dutch general election

2006 Dutch general election

← 2003 22 November 2006 2010 →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	80.35% ( 0.31pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– CDA Jan Peter Balkenende 26.51 41 −3 PvdA Wouter Bos 21.19 33 −9 SP Jan Marijnissen 16.58 25 +16 VVD Mark Rutte 14.67 22 −6 PVV Geert Wilders 5.89 9 New GL Femke Halsema 4.60 7 −1 CU André Rouvoet 3.97 6 +3 D66 Alexander Pechtold 1.96 3 −3 PvdD Marianne Thieme 1.83 2 New SGP Bas van der Vlies 1.56 2 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Strongest political party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after Third Balkenende cabinet CDA–VVD Fourth Balkenende cabinet CDA–PvdA–CU

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006, following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The election proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest party with 41 seats, a loss of only three seats. The largest increase in seats was for the Socialist Party (SP), which went from nine to 25 seats. The main opposition party, the social democratic Labour Party (PvdA) lost nine of its 42 seats, while the right-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the progressive liberal Democrats 66 lost a considerable portion of their seats, six of 28 and three of six, respectively. New parties, such as the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) of former VVD MP Geert Wilders and the animal rights party Party for the Animals (PvdD) were also successful, with the PVV winning nine seats and the PvdD winning two, thereby becoming the first animal rights group to enter a European parliament.^[1]

The government formation talks led to the installation of the Christian-social fourth Balkenende cabinet, composed of the CDA, PvdA and the Christian Union on 22 February 2007.