Crisis Chronology | Netherlands

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NETHERLANDS

11/22/2023

Far-right party wins plurality

Right-wing radical Kurt Wilders’ Freedom party (PVV) wins 37 of 150 seats in parliament. Labour/Green coalition wins 25 and Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) wins 24. Though media hail Wilders as the next prime minister, most other parties in parliament have said they will not join a coalition with PVV, which is anti-immigrant and opposed to membership in the EU. Rutte says he will not join Wilders’ coalition but could back a “center-right” government. NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt said he could not enter a coalition with Wilders unless he recanted the Quran and mosque ban. And Wilders wants to cut EU funding and promised a referendum on membership, while Omtzigt opposes a “Nexit.”

07/10/2023

Rutte says he will leave politics after the upcoming election.

07/07/2023

Government falls

Rutte offers his resignation, triggering elections in the fall. He was unable to convince centrist coalition partners to agree to more restrictive immigration laws. The rise of far-right parties on this and other issues moved Rutte to propose these more conservative laws.

10/26/2022

Netherlands investigating reports of two Chinese police stations having been opened in the country, which would be illegal.

09/30/2022

Inflation reaches 17%, the highest in decades, amid a worldwide inflationary period.

12/16/2021

Rutte returns in new government

Mark Rutte is appointed formateur of a new government coalition including his liberal VVD, the centrist D66, the Christian Democratic CDA and the Christian Union (CU). If he is elected prime minister, he would become the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history.

11/21/2021

Violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions.

11/12/2021

COVID-19 cases hit a new high.

07/15/2021

Flooding in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France as well as Germany.

04/08/2021

After weeks of futile discussions, parliament nominates an elder statesman, Herman Tjeenk Willink to be an “informateur,” who will negotiate with the parties in an effort to form a government.

03/18/2021

Rutte government re-elected

Rutte claims victory for his coalition. His Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) wins 35 of 150 seats. The center-left Democrats 66 (D66), led by Sigrid Krag, wins 24. D66 has been steadily increasing its parliamentary representation since its foundation in 1966. The far-right PVV party loses some seats, falling to 17.

01/26/2021

Riots continue.

01/24/2021

Widespread protests and some riots protesting COVID-19 restrictions.

01/15/2021

Rutte government falls

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced the resignation of his government, accepting responsibility for years of mismanagement of childcare subsidies, which wrongfully drove thousands of families to financial ruin. The cabinet would remain in place in a caretaker capacity to manage the coronavirus crisis for now, with an election already due on March 17.

12/14/2020

Government issues strict stay-at-home order for the holidays as result of the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

10/14/2020

The Netherlands to begin a partial stay-at-home order as COVID-19 cases increase.

10/08/2020

The Netherlands reports a record number of new cases of COVID-19.

03/17/2020

Netherlands issues stay at home order due to COVID-19.

11/06/2019

Thousands of schools are closed as teachers strike, another in a series of recent protests against government inaction. The long-planned one-day strike was held even though PM Rutte reached an agreement with unions and schools to invest more money in education last week.

10/14/2019

Some provinces overturn regulations on nitrogen-based pollution ordered by the government.

10/13/2019

Dutch farmers protest new rules restricting nitrogen-based pollution.

03/20/2019

In voting for the Senate, the new, anti-immigrant, Forum for Democracy Party, led by Theirry Baudet, wins the most seats, with 13. Mark Rutte’s party comes in second, but still holds a majority in the 75-seat upper house. The voting came two days after a terrorist attack on a tram in Utrecht that killed three. Baudet was the only politician who did not halt campaigning after the shooting.

11/12/2018

French Pres Macron proposes a joint military force for Europe. Europe already has the European Intervention Initiative (EI2), aimed at creating a unified military force capable of taking coordinated action abroad. Finland joins the group, which includes France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Estonia, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

10/04/2018

Netherlands accuses the Russian military intelligence agency, generally still known as the GRU, of an attempted cyberattack on the Office of the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, which was investigating Russian participation in chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

03/26/2018

Eighteen countries join UK in unusual diplomatic rebuke to Russia for the murder of Sergei Skripal. US expels sixty Russian diplomats, the largest number ever. Other countries expelling diplomats are: Albania, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.

10/10/2017

Rutte to form government

Dutch PM Mark Rutte reaches agreement with four main Dutch political parties to form a government. It was the longest time to do so in history. The new coalition will be more conservative than before, focusing on tax policy and national identity.

03/15/2017

Parliamentary election

Rutte’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) wins a substantial plurality with 33 seats of the 150 total. Wilders’s Party for Freedom (PVV) gains four seats to 20, short of its goal. Biggest gain is by the Green-Left (GL), which gains 10 seats, to 14. The Christian Democrats (CDA) gain five, to 19, and the Democrats 7, to 19.