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| House of Representatives | |
| Legislature: | States General of the Netherlands |
| House Type: | Lower house |
| Leader1 Type: | Speaker |
| Leader1: | Martin Bosma |
| Party1: | PVV |
| Election1: | 14 December 2023 |
| Leader2 Type: | First Deputy Speaker |
| Leader2: | Tom van der Lee |
| Party2: | GL–PvdA |
| Election2: | 19 December 2023 |
| Leader3 Type: | Second Deputy Speaker |
| Leader3: | Roelien Kamminga |
| Party3: | VVD |
| Election3: | 19 December 2023 |
| Seats: | 150 |
| Structure1: | File:Dutch House of Representatives, December 2023, English Wiki colours.svg |
| Structure1 Res: | 250px |
| Political Groups1: | Government (88)
Opposition (62) |
| Voting System1: | Open party-list proportional representation (D'Hondt method) |
| Last Election1: | 22 November 2023 |
| Next Election1: | On or before 15 March 2028 |
| Session Room: | Plenaire zaal Tweede Kamer - panorama.jpg |
| Session Res: | 250px |
| Session Room2: | Tweede Kamer tijdelijke locatie plenaire zaal (3).jpg |
| Meeting Place: | Binnenhof, The Hague (closed due to ongoing renovations) |
| Meeting Place2: | Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, The Hague (temporary) |
The House of Representatives (in Dutch; Flemish pronounced as /ˈtʋeːdə ˈkaːmər dər ˈstaːtə(ŋ) ˌɣeːnəˈraːl/, literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply) 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. Generally, the house is located in the Binnenhof in The Hague, however, 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.[2]
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".
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.[3] 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.[4] 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.
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.[5]
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.
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.
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.
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[6] with an election threshold of 0.67% (a Hare quota).[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] [10]
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.[11]
When a vacancy arises, the seat is offered to the next candidate on the candidate list to which the seat was originally allocated.[12]
See 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.
See main article: Historic composition of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands.
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.
See 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.
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:[13]
| Position | Portrait | Name | Group | Service in the Presidium | Service in the House of Representatives | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speaker | Martin Bosma (born 1964) | 30 June 2010 | 30 November 2006 | |||
| First Deputy Speaker | Tom van der Lee (born 1964) | 14 June 2018 | 23 March 2017 | |||
| Second Deputy Speaker | Roelien Kamminga (born 1978) | VVD | 7 July 2021 | 31 March 2021 | ||
| Third Deputy Speaker | Nicolien van Vroonhoven-Kok (born 1971) | 19 December 2023 | 23 May 2002 - 12 May 2008, 18 August 2008 - 17 June 2010, 6 December 2023 | |||
| Fourth Deputy Speaker | Wieke Paulusma (born 1978) | 19 December 2023 | 15 April 2021 | |||
| Fifth Deputy Speaker | Henk Vermeer (born 1966) | 19 December 2023 | 6 December 2023 | |||
| Sixth Deputy Speaker | Gidi Markuszower (born 1977) | 19 December 2023 | 21 March 2017 | |||
See main article: Parliamentary committee of the Dutch parliament.
| Parliamentary committee | Ministry | Current chair | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations | Peter de Groot (VVD) | ||
| Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Raymond de Roon (PVV) | ||
| Ministry of Finance | Judith Tielen (VVD) | ||
| Parliamentary committee for Justice and Security | Ministry of Justice and Security | Michiel van Nispen (SP) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy | Ministry of Economic Affairs | Chris Stoffer (SGP) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Defence | Ministry of Defence | Raymond de Roon (PVV) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Health, Welfare and Sport | Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport | Vacant | |
| Parliamentary committee for Social Affairs and Employment | Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment | Léon de Jong (PVV) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Education, Culture and Science | Ministry of Education, Culture and Science | Ingrid Michon-Derkzen (VVD) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Infrastructure and Water Management | Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management | Wytske Postma (NSC) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature | Dion Graus (PVV) | |
| Select Parliamentary Committee | Ministry | Current Chair | |
| Parliamentary committee for Kingdom Relations | Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations | Wieke Paulusma (D66) | |
| Parliamentary committee for European Affairs | Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Laura Bromet (GL–PvdA) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation | Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Joris Thijssen (GL–PvdA) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Building Supervision | Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management | Thierry Aartsen (VVD) | |
| Parliamentary committee for Petitions and the Citizen Initiatives | Raoul White (GL–PvdA) | ||
| Parliamentary committee for Intelligence and Security | Geert Wilders (PVV) | ||
| Committee for Working Methods | Martin Bosma (PVV) | ||
| Art Committee | Peter van Haasen (PVV) | ||
| Committee for the Verification of Credentials | Ulysse Ellian (VVD) | ||
| Committee for Government Expenditure | Joost Sneller (D66) | ||
| Special Parliamentary Committee | Ministry | Current Chair | |
| Parliamentary committee for Digital Affairs | Barbara Kathmann (GL–PvdA) |