House of Representatives (Netherlands)

The House of Representatives (Dutch: Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [ˈtʋeːdə ˈkaːmər dɛr ˈstaːtə(ŋ) ɣeːnəˈraːl] ^ⓘ, literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply Tweede Kamer) is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. It has 150 seats, which are filled through elections using party-list proportional representation. The house is located in the Binnenhof in The Hague; it has temporarily moved to the former building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Bezuidenhoutseweg 67 in The Hague while the Binnenhof is being renovated.

House of Representatives Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal
States General of the Netherlands
Type
Type	Lower house
Leadership
Speaker	Martin Bosma, PVV since 14 December 2023
First Deputy Speaker	Tom van der Lee, GL–PvdA since 19 December 2023
Second Deputy Speaker	Roelien Kamminga, VVD since 19 December 2023
Structure
Seats	150
Political groups	Government (88)   PVV (37)   VVD (24)   NSC (20)   BBB (7) Opposition (62)   GL–PvdA (25)   D66 (9)   CDA (5)   SP (5)   FvD (3)   PvdD (3)   SGP (3)   CU (3)   DENK (3)   Volt (2)   JA21 (1)
Elections
Voting system	Open party-list proportional representation (D'Hondt method)
Last election	22 November 2023
Next election	On or before 15 March 2028
Meeting place
Binnenhof, The Hague (closed due to ongoing renovations)
Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, The Hague (temporary)
Website
www.houseofrepresentatives.nl

Name

Although the body is officially called the "House of Representatives" in English, it is not a direct translation of its official Dutch name, the "Second Chamber of the States General", "Second Chamber" or more colloquially just the "Chamber". Rather than "representative" (afgevaardigde), a member of the House is referred to as (Tweede) Kamerlid, or "member of the (Second) Chamber".

Functions

The House of Representatives is the primary legislative body of the States General, where proposed legislation is discussed and the actions of the cabinet are reviewed. Both the Cabinet and the House of Representatives itself have the right to propose legislation; the House of Representatives discusses it and, if adopted by a majority, sends it on to the Senate. Both individual cabinet ministers and the cabinet as a whole must have parliament’s confidence. Therefore, a minister, or the whole cabinet, must resign if a majority of parliament expresses it no longer has confidence in them. Review of the actions of the cabinet takes the form of formal interrogations in plenary and committee meetings, which may result in motions urging the cabinet to take, or refrain from, certain actions. No individual may be a member of both parliament and cabinet, except in a caretaker cabinet that has not yet been succeeded when a new House is sworn in.

EU decision making

Through functions like the scrutiny and political discussions before meetings of the Council of the European Union, the appointment of EU-rapporteurs, and participation in the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs the House of Representatives also plays a role in EU policy making.

Appointment of functionaries

The House of Representatives is also responsible for the first round of selection for judges to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. It submits a list of three names for every vacant position to the Government. Furthermore, it elects the Dutch Ombudsman and their deputies.

Elections

The normal term of the House of Representatives is four years. Elections are called when the government loses the parliament's confidence, the governing coalition breaks down, the term of the House of Representatives expires, or when no governing coalition can be formed.

Registration and eligibility

All citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. Eligible citizens residing in the Netherlands are automatically registered through the municipal population register, while expatriates can permanently register at the municipality of The Hague provided they have a current Dutch passport or national ID. Residents of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten can only vote if they have spent at least ten years residing in the Netherlands or work for the Dutch civil service.

Prisoners serving a term of more than one year are not eligible to vote. From 2009 onwards, mentally incapacitated citizens have regained the right to vote.

Electoral system

See also: Political parties in the Netherlands and Elections in the Netherlands

The Netherlands uses a system of party-list proportional representation. Seats are allocated among the parties using the D'Hondt method with an election threshold of 0.67% (a Hare quota). Parties may choose to compete with different candidate lists in each of the country's twenty electoral circles. If a party competes with different candidate lists, the seats allocated to the party are subsequently allocated among its different candidate lists using the largest remainders method. 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.

From 1973 until 2017, parties were able to form electoral alliances to increase their share of seats in parliament, allowing parties to overcome some of the bias of the D'Hondt method; however, this practice has since been discontinued.

When a vacancy arises, the seat is offered to the next candidate on the candidate list to which the seat was originally allocated.

Formation of governing coalition

Main article: Dutch cabinet formation

After all seats are allocated, a series of negotiations take place in order to form a government that, usually, commands a majority in the chamber. Since 2012, the House of Representatives appoints a "scout" to ask the major party leaders about prospective coalitions. On basis of the scout's interviews, the House of Representatives then appoints an informateur, who checks out possible coalitions, and a formateur, who leads negotiations. Before 2012, the informateur and formateur were appointed by the monarch. It typically takes a few months before the formateur is ready to accept a royal invitation to form a government and become prime minister. All cabinet members must resign from parliament, as the constitution does not allow a cabinet member to simultaneously hold a seat in the House of Representatives.

Due to the nationwide party-list system and the low election threshold, a typical House of Representatives has ten or more parties represented. Such fragmentation makes it nearly impossible for one party to win the 76 seats needed for a majority in the House of Representatives. Since the current party-list proportional representation system was introduced in 1917, no party has approached the number of seats needed for an outright majority. This fragmentation also makes it almost prohibitively difficult to win enough seats to govern alone. The highest number of seats won by a single party since then has been 54 out of 150, by the CDA in 1986 and 1989. Between 1891 and 1897, the Liberal Union was the last party to have an absolute majority of seats in the House of Representatives. All Dutch cabinets since then have been coalitions of two or more parties.

Composition

Historical compositions

Main article: Historic composition of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands

Representation per party, between 1946 and 2021

Historically, there have been 100 seats in the House of Representatives. In 1956, this number was increased to 150, at which it remains today.

To give an overview of the history of the House of Representatives, the figure on the right shows the seat distribution in the House from the first general elections after World War II (1946) to the most recent election. The left-wing parties are located towards the bottom, while the Christian parties are located in the center, and the right-wing parties towards the top. Occasionally, single-issue (or narrow-focus) parties have arisen, and these are shown at the extreme top. Vertical lines indicate general elections. Although these are generally held every four years, the resulting coalition governments do not always finish their term without a government crisis, which is often followed by new elections.

Current composition

Main article: List of members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, 2023–present

The composition of the House of Representatives as of the 2023 general election is shown in the table below.

Group		Leader	Seats
	Party for Freedom	Geert Wilders	37 / 150
	GroenLinks–PvdA	Frans Timmermans	25 / 150
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	Dilan Yeşilgöz	24 / 150
	New Social Contract	Pieter Omtzigt	20 / 150
	Democrats 66	Rob Jetten	9 / 150
	Farmer–Citizen Movement	Caroline van der Plas	7 / 150
	Christian Democratic Appeal	Henri Bontenbal	5 / 150
	Socialist Party	Jimmy Dijk	5 / 150
	DENK	Stephan van Baarle	3 / 150
	Party for the Animals	Esther Ouwehand	3 / 150
	Forum for Democracy	Thierry Baudet	3 / 150
	Reformed Political Party	Chris Stoffer	3 / 150
	Christian Union	Mirjam Bikker	3 / 150
	Volt Netherlands	Laurens Dassen	2 / 150
	JA21	Joost Eerdmans	1 / 150

Wasted vote

The small fraction of voters, which were not represented by any party in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands despite valid vote, is increasing. The wasted vote fraction is shown below:

Graph of the wasted vote in the Netherlands from 2002 to 2021

Members of the Presidium

Position	Portrait	Name	Group		Service in the Presidium	Service in the House of Representatives
Speaker		Martin Bosma (born 1964)		PVV	30 June 2010 (14 years, 183 days)	30 November 2006 (18 years, 30 days)
First Deputy Speaker		Tom van der Lee (born 1964)		GL/PvdA	14 June 2018 (6 years, 199 days)	23 March 2017 (7 years, 282 days)
Second Deputy Speaker		Roelien Kamminga (born 1978)		VVD	7 July 2021 (3 years, 176 days)	31 March 2021 (3 years, 274 days)
Third Deputy Speaker		Nicolien van Vroonhoven-Kok (born 1971)		NSC	19 December 2023 (1 year, 11 days)	23 May 2002 - 12 May 2008, 18 August 2008 - 17 June 2010, 6 December 2023 (8 years, 319 days)
Fourth Deputy Speaker		Wieke Paulusma (born 1978)		D66	19 December 2023 (1 year, 11 days)	15 April 2021 (3 years, 259 days)
Fifth Deputy Speaker		Henk Vermeer (born 1966)		BBB	19 December 2023 (1 year, 11 days)	6 December 2023 (1 year, 24 days)
Sixth Deputy Speaker		Gidi Markuszower (born 1977)		PVV	19 December 2023 (1 year, 11 days)	21 March 2017 (7 years, 284 days)

Parliamentary committees

Main article: Parliamentary committee of the Dutch parliament

Parliamentary committees are set up for a specific substantive or procedural subject. The committees consult in so-called committee meetings. A standing committee is a committee set up to monitor a policy area of a ministry. They are defined in the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives. Standing committees were established in 1953 to relieve the plenary of overly detailed discussions. In the period from the 2023 Dutch general election, there are a total of fifteen standing committees. Except for the Ministry of General Affairs, there is a permanent committee for each ministry that deals with subjects in the field of that ministry. For some ministries, the portfolio is divided over several committees. In addition, there are standing committees without a ministry for European Affairs and Digital Affairs.

External links

• Official website
• (in Dutch) Official site