Dutch general election, 2012

Dutch general election, 2012

← 2010 12 September 2012 (2012-09-12) 2017 →
Turnout	74.6%
Party Leader % Seats ± VVD Mark Rutte 26.6% 41 +10 PvdA Diederik Samsom 24.8% 38 +8 PVV Geert Wilders 10.1% 15 -9 SP Emile Roemer 9.7% 15 0 CDA Sybrand van Haersma Buma 8.5% 13 -8 D66 Alexander Pechtold 8.0% 12 +2 CU Arie Slob 3.1% 5 0 GL Jolande Sap 2.3% 4 -6 SGP Kees van der Staaij 2.1% 3 +1 PvdD Marianne Thieme 1.9% 2 0 50+ Henk Krol 1.9% 2 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Strongest political party by municipality
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Mark Rutte VVD Mark Rutte VVD

Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands were contested using party-list proportional representation. The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) received a plurality of the votes, followed by the Labour Party (PvdA).

Prior to the election, polls had predicted an increase in support for the Socialist Party, primarily at the expense of the PvdA, but the PvdA regained support during the campaign, which was attributed to the leadership of Diederik Samsom and in the election the Socialist Party failed to increase its seats. The Party for Freedom (PVV) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) both lost seats.

After 49 days of negotiations, a new VVD-PvdA centrist government was formed on 5 November 2012, comprising Mark Rutte as prime minister along with 7 VVD ministers and 6 PvdA ministers.

It was the first Netherlands-wide election in which the Caribbean Netherlands participated.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government fell after the Party for Freedom (PVV), which had supported the government from outside, refused to sanction the austerity measures the government sought in April 2012. This called for a new early election to be held in September 2012. It is the fourth early election in a row since the Second Kok cabinet fell very near the end of its mandate, which allowed that government to keep the election date to be held as scheduled by the term in May 2002. Early elections were subsequently held in January 2003, November 2006, June 2010 and September 2012. And during that time a total of five governments ended prematurely, as it was possible for the Third Balkenende cabinet (July–November 2006) to be formed without a new election.