Dutch general election, 1971

Dutch general election, 1971

28 April 1971
Turnout	79.1%
Party Leader % Seats ± PvdA Joop den Uyl 24.5% 39 +2 KVP Gerard Veringa 21.8% 35 -7 VVD Molly Geertsema 10.3% 16 -1 ARP Barend Biesheuvel 8.5% 13 -2 D66 Hans van Mierlo 6.7% 11 +4 CHU Bé Udink 4.4% 7 -3 DS'70 Willem Drees Jr. 5.3% 8 New CPN Marcus Bakker 3.8% 6 +1 SGP Hette Abma 2.3% 3 0 PPR Jacques Aarden 1.8% 2 New GPV Piet Jongeling 1.6% 2 +1 NMP Albert te Pas 1.5% 2 New PSP Hans Wiebenga 1.4% 2 -2 BP Hendrik Koekoek 1.1% 1 -6 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Seats
Prime Minister before Prime Minister Piet de Jong KVP Barend Biesheuvel ARP

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 28 April 1971.^[1] The Labour Party (PvdA) emerged as the largest party, winning 39 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.^[2] The elections were the first without compulsory voting, causing a sharp fall in voter turnout, down to 79.1% from 94.9% in the 1967 elections.^[3] Barend Biesheuvel of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) became Prime Minister, leading the first Biesheuvel cabinet.

His cabinet contained a broad coalition of parties, with ministers from ARP, Christian Historical Union (both Protestant), the Catholic People's Party, the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and moderate socialist Democratic Socialists '70 (DS'70), which had just split off from the PvdA.

However, Biesheuvel's government was short-lived; following a decision to cut government spending, DS'70 withdrew from the government, causing it to lose its majority and fresh elections to be held after just a year and seven months.

Results

References