Dutch Elections 2025

[Butters]

Probably nobody cares since it's such a small part of the world, but this week Wednesday we went to vote for the Dutch parliamentary elections. Results in my opinion are kinda meh, as I was hoping for a much stronger Left-wing victory after 2 years of complete populist mess. 

These parties are:

• 26 - PVV - Right-wing populist (anti-immigration party)
• 26 D66 - Left-wing liberal
• 22 VVD - Right-wing conservative
• 20 GL/PVDA - Left-wing (Green + Labor)
• 18 CDA - Christian conservative
• 9 FVD - Right-wing populist
• 4 BBB - Right-wing populist
• 3 DENK - Left
• 3 SGP - Right-wing Christian conservative
• 3 SP - Left-wing (Socialist Party)
• 3 PVDD - Left-wing (Animal Party)
• 3 CU - Christian conservative
• 2 50PLUS - Old people party?
• 1 VOLT - Left-wing progressive

 

In case you're wondering how these elections work:

The Netherlands has 150 seats in the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives). Each political party gets seats in proportion to the votes they receive.

Example:

If a party gets 10% of all votes, they get about 15 seats (10% of 150). After the election, parties form coalitions (team up) until they have at least 76 seats together, which gives them a majority to govern.

Every major party has already ruled out PVV after some were silly enough to try and govern along them. So D66 gets to form their coalition, hopefully over the left wing. 

[Butters]

Populism:

The Netherlands is a tiny country that's part of EU. Although wonderful and rich, it has very little influence on a global scale by any stretch of the imagination. 

Yet populists don't see it that way. They would like to move away from the EU (total exit is entirely unrealistic) and are against migration, even though it helps us economically. 

PVV has all sorts of unrealistic, anti-constitutional 'ideas'. These voters are under the impression that the country is being overrun and turned into some Islamic state. This is based on nothing and has nothing to do with reality. Voters probably know this but want to 'vote against the system'. 

These 'votes against the system' help put clowns into government who don't give a shit about actually governing, delaying progress for absolutely no reason other than 'baseless voter sentiment'. 

At least we don't have kings or presidents in power. 

Edited October 31 by Butters

[Ima Freeman]

Interesting. A swinging pendulum it seems.


There is a reason though that conservatives are taking over European parliaments. Mass migration from the Middle East made some damage.

[Jacob Morres]

Great..  this right wing nonsense is getting huge 

Ngl i didnt expect this. I blame musk for taking over the narrative 

Edited October 31 by Jacob Morres

[Butters]

8 minutes ago, Jacob Morres said:

Great..  this right wing nonsense is getting huge 

Ngl i didnt expect this. I blame musk for taking over the narrative 

PVV had 37 seats from last election in 2023, that was the real surge. This feels like a decline in populist votes but still huge. 

But the Netherlands is a pretty conservative country politically, it's the Randstad (Amsterdam and surrounding cities) that's liberal. 

[Husseinisdoingfine]

A lot of Muslim immigrants don't properly integrate to first world values and customs, so this sort of backlash is to be expected. 

[Jacob Morres]

@Butters thats fair. Do you know if the netherlands right wing more left than americas? 

[Butters]

17 hours ago, Jacob Morres said:

@Butters thats fair. Do you know if the netherlands right wing more left than americas? 

Oh yes, definitely more left compared to the U.S.. 

[Aaron p]

Holland looks good, what would you say are 3 of your favorite things and three of your least favorite things about living in the Netherlands?@Butters

Edited November 8 by Aaron p

[oldhandle]

On 11/1/2025 at 0:40 AM, Husseinisdoingfine said:

A lot of Muslim immigrants don't properly integrate to first world values and customs, so this sort of backlash is to be expected. 

not all of them

[Butters]

On 11/8/2025 at 3:02 PM, Aaron p said:

Holland looks good, what would you say are 3 of your favorite things and three of your least favorite things about living in the Netherlands?@Butters

That's a tough one. 

1. Individualism: this might apply to all Western countries but still. I've lived in Indonesia for a few years and I really missed my privacy and ability to just do whatever the f*ck I want. 
2. Architecture: I think many cities have a perfect blend of modern and old Dutch style houses, churches, train stations and other buildings. 
3. Egalitarianism: everyone is pretty much equal. There are facilities for drug users, homeless people etc. Those who have a low income can receive government money to pay healthcare or childcare. This is also part of the cultural values, to a degree. 

Least favorite:

1. Weather: spring and fall are lovely, but winter can get depressing. Not enough AC availability in the summer. 
2. Conformism: but that's just because I've been here so long. You wouldn't notice this if you're not Dutch. 
3. Prices: are quite high. But it's also very Dutch to complain about the weather and prices. 

[Alexop]

@Butters i don't know that much about dutch people but I assume they are quite Green and somewhat snowflakes if they resemble the germanic people today. My question is how many immigrant background friends do you have if you are dutch? How many immigrant background friends, like from middle east or so, does the average dutch have? What I notice in Sweden is that these people live around each other, they don't really blend, no matter if they are zoned together or not. They might make some swedish friends at work but that is minimal and aquantiance level usually.

So, there has to be some caution about immigration. Now don't get me wrong, we need immigration, but in a way that will make people blend and assimilate culture. Stage Green is a special stage, quite easily offended and picky, they want to take in people but I will ask them how close do they really keep them. It is like me taking in refugees and keeping them in my garage.

Edited Wednesday at 09:41 PM by Alexop

[MightyMind]

On 2025-10-31 at 4:40 PM, Husseinisdoingfine said:

A lot of Muslim immigrants don't properly integrate to first world values and customs, so this sort of backlash is to be expected. 

@Husseinisdoingfine It's surprising how many people don't comprehend this reality. There's no shortage of footage of Imams and believers speak openly about how they will get involved in politics and other institutes in order to make the country Islamic centred and with the idea of implementing sharia law. Unfortunately until one sees what I'm talking about they will counter, "not all of them are like this". Problem is, when many do think this way it doesn't take all of them to make it happen. 

[Alexop]

@MightyMind forget muslims, even traditional romanians cannot integrate. I know people that worked 10 years in Sweden and did not make 1 Swedish friend. They just avoid you if you dont fit the frame of "the friend" they look for. They want to help them but from a distance, through taxes.

[Kid A]

6 hours ago, Alexop said:

@MightyMind forget muslims, even traditional romanians cannot integrate. I know people that worked 10 years in Sweden and did not make 1 Swedish friend. They just avoid you if you dont fit the frame of "the friend" they look for. They want to help them but from a distance, through taxes.

Lack of integration isn’t the main problem here. I don’t think natives are much better at making friends as adults either. In Scandinavia, your friends are people you grew up with. The ability to make new friends seems to be something we lose as we get older.

The fact that we’re so dependent on alcohol to socialize should tell you a thing or two about how dysfunctional the social culture here is. It’s absolutely terrible and needs to change.

[Alexop]

@Kid A I agree, I mean this is a thing in the whole first world but here it is just too much. This law of yante of not showing vulnerability and authenticity with people for the sake of social consensus is a big factor. People are brainwashed into fakness and lack of personality from day 1.

[Daniel Balan]

11 minutes ago, Alexop said:

@Kid A I agree, I mean this is a thing in the whole first world but here it is just too much. This law of yante of not showing vulnerability and authenticity with people for the sake of social consensus is a big factor. People are brainwashed into fakness and lack of personality from day 1.

I said this before and I will say it again. I'd give half of my monthly salary to god to replace the utter barbarians in my community with these snowflakes from the Nordic countries. I get that the Nordic youth is a bit too chill and mellow, but maybe we should start to appreciate such people. I've been to western Europe and I felt like I was for the first time in my life relaxed and not under threat that some redneck might throw a stone at me. I'm not complaining about the people in my community, I have gotten used to them and I know how to handle such redneck barbarians, but I wish they were the autistic snowflakes of the Nordic countries. 

[Kid A]

1 hour ago, Alexop said:

@Kid A I agree, I mean this is a thing in the whole first world but here it is just too much. This law of yante of not showing vulnerability and authenticity with people for the sake of social consensus is a big factor. People are brainwashed into fakness and lack of personality from day 1.

This made me think of this dark monologue from the Norwegian TV series Exit: 

«Just look around, you know. It just makes you want to scream. Look at all the people who lie and pretend day and night. It just makes you want to grab a baseball bat and start smashing. Everything is constructed. Everyone follows the rules so that society won’t fall apart. You’ve been trained in how you’re supposed to behave… It’s not YOU, or your needs or your genetics or… We live according to inherited, consensus-based guidelines that make it so absolutely NO ONE can be who they really are. It’s exactly as awful as it sounds. You’re not consensus, you’re an individual. People are depressed for one single reason, and that’s that they can’t be themselves. They’re trapped by the worst thing that exists: shame. Inherited shame they can never escape because they’re biologically programmed with a desire to belong. And worst of all: you’re trapped in the desire to live. It’s been welded into your DNA through millions of years. It’s not a good deal, you know, Pål. And somewhere between offense, woke, politics, norms and thousands of years of religion, shame, consensus and evolution, we’ve been destroyed. Lost.»

Edited 23 hours ago by Kid A

[Alexop]

@Kid A highest rates of depression in the developed world says something about it. The fact that they open up when drunk says something about them, it shows that something was suppressed. 

This is a very insidious problem, it is not like someone explicitly tells you to conform and fit in, it Is that you learn it through the pain of being avoided/rejected/ghosted. 

When I came here I was very interested into meeting new Swedes, but now it's not that wow anymore, I feel like getting a girl that did not get completely brainwashed into this madness and live happily with her and just let the others play their fake game together.

[Alexop]

@Daniel Balan yes dude I lived with those people too, and they are the opposite extreme. If Scandinavian people live in a systemic fakeness and emotional suppression, most romanians live in an uncivilised circus, traumatizing and hurting each other with aggressive words and behaviour.

Edited 21 hours ago by Alexop