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Roundup: Dutch cabinet alliance loses majority in senate

Xinhua, May 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The result of the Dutch senate elections on Tuesday turned out as expected based on the provincial elections, with the Dutch government coalition and its supporting parties getting only 36 of the 75 seats in the upper house.

The VVD (Liberals) maintained its position as the biggest party, but lost three seats, going down from 16 to 13 seats in the senate, while the PvdA (Labor) party dropped from 14 to 8 seats.

The outcome is important for the government. To pass law reforms, a majority is needed in both houses of the parliament.

The government coalition, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, lost the majority, which they held together with the supporting parties D66 (Democrats), ChristianUnion, and SGP (Christian parties). The five parties now have 36 of the 75 available seats, while they had a small majority of 38 after the senate elections of 2011.

With a minority in the senate, the government now needs to look for new partners to get new bills approved.

The senate members were elected by members of the 12 provincial councils, for which elections were held on March 18 this year. Therefore the results were predictable, but surprise or tactical votes could not be excluded.

The CDA (Christian Democrats) received 12 seats, followed by D66 with 10 seats, the PVV (Party for Freedom) and SP (Socialist Party) both nine, GroenLinks (GreenLeft) four, the Christian parties ChristenUnie and SGP three and two respectively, 50Plus (for elderly interests) and Partij voor de Dieren (for animal interests) both two and the platform for independent regional parties one.

The new senate will be installed on June 9.

Last week, Rutte stated the loss of majority in the senate wasn't really crucial because several law reforms on health care, pensions, employment and education had already passed the senate. A revision of the tax system is the only major reform still on the current government's agenda.

PvdA leader Diederik Samsom also thought the outcome didn't change a lot. "The voter has fragmented the political landscape," he said. "The government will have to continue to look for majorities. So far, the government succeeded in that." Endit