The political framework of the Netherlands

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: King: Willem-Alexander (since 30 April 2013) - hereditary
Prime Minister: Mark Rutte (since 14 October 2010)
Next Election Dates: First Chamber: May 2023
Second Chamber: 31 March 2025
Current Political Context: Prime Minister Mark Rutte has secured a fourth term in office by renewing a largely centrist alliance between his conservative and economically liberal VVD and the liberal-centrist D66, the centre-right CDA, and the conservative CU.
Throughout 2022, the government focused its action on mitigating the impact of the high inflation on the cost of living of households and businesses, while also working on policies to secure and diversify energy supply both in the short and long term.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Netherlands agreed to increase the defence budget to meet NATO’s annual 2% of GDP goal from 2023.
Main Political Parties: The Netherlands has a two-tier parliament divided into two chambers. The main parties are:

- People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD): centre-right, based on free market ideas, liberal
- Democrats 66 (D66): centre, progressive-liberal and radical-democratic political party
- Party for Freedom (PVV): right-wing, known for hard stands on immigration
- Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA): centre, Christian democrats
- Socialist Party (SP): left-wing, extremely socialist
- Labour Party (PvdA): centre-left, social-democratic party
- Greenleft (GL): centre-left, eco-socialist and anti-capitalist political party
- Party For The Animals (PvdD): Environmentalism, Animal Rights, Soft-Euroscepticsm
- ChristianUnion (CU): centre, orthodox reformed political party with centre-left ideals
- 50 Plus (50+) : Pensioners interest, populism
- Reformed Political Party (SGP) : Christian Right, Social Conservatism
- DENK : Minority Rights , Identity Politics
- Forum For Democracy: National Conservatism
Executive Power: The Chief of State is the King, whose role is cerimonial. Following parliamentary (lower house) elections, the leader of the majority party or of a majority coalition is usually appointed Prime Minister (head of the Government) by the Monarch to serve a four year term. The Council of Ministers is appointed by the monarch on recommendation of the Prime Minister.
Legislative Power: Legislative power is bicameral. The parliament is called States General and consists of two chambers: the First Chamber (upper house, 75 members indirectly elected) and the Second Chamber (lower house, 150 members directly elected). Members of both chambers serve a four-year term. The Government has the right to dissolve the parliament, either one or both of the chambers.

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 6/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Free
Political Freedom:: 1/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

Any Comment About This Content? Report It to Us.

Trade FiguresPrevious

NextCovid-19