Dutch referendum on the European Constitution

Dutch European Constitution referendum, 2005

Are you For of or Against approval by the Netherlands of the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe?

Location

Netherlands

Date

1 June 2005

Results
	Votes	%
For	2,940,730	7001384600000000000♠38.46%
Against	4,705,685	7001615400000000000♠61.54%
Valid votes	7,646,415	7001992400000000000♠99.24%
Invalid or blank votes	58,781	6999760000000000000♠0.76%
Total votes	7,705,196	100.00%
Eligible to vote/turnout	12,172,740	7001633000000000000♠63.3%

Non-binding referendum

The Dutch referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was a consultative referendum that was held on 1 June 2005 to decide if the Netherlands would ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union.

The vote was the first national referendum for over two hundred years, and was not binding on the government, meaning that despite the electorate rejecting the Constitution it could theoretically still be ratified by the States-General. The government did say, however, that it would abide by a decisive result, provided turnout exceeded 30%. Official results say that 61.6% of voters rejected the Constitution, on a turnout of 63.3%.

The question put to voters was:

The possible answers were voor (For), tegen (Against). At some polling stations in the larger cities it was also possible to cast a blank ballot. The latter did not count for the result, but allowed voters to make an affirmative abstention.

The referendum came just three days after the French referendum on the Constitution resulted in its rejection. Because all EU member states needed to ratify the treaty for it to take effect, some regarded the Dutch referendum as irrelevant. However, Dutch campaigners for a "Yes" vote appealed to the electorate to avoid damaging the Netherlands' standing in Europe in the way that the French result was perceived, in some quarters, to have weakened the position of France. Before the plebiscite, many "No" campaigners expressed the view that French rejection of the treaty would encourage Dutch voters to follow suit. A second "No" vote in a referendum in one of the founding countries of the project of European integration was widely regarded as having the power to "kill off" the treaty. Opinion polls in the days leading up to the referendum gave the "No" campaign a clear lead.

The bill that led to the referendum was drafted by Members of the Dutch parliament: Farah Karimi (GreenLeft), Niesco Dubbelboer (Dutch Labour Party) and Boris van der Ham (D66). The government was not in favor of this bill. During and after the debate about the bill several political parties made clear how they would act with the different possible outcomes of the referendum. While the referendum was officially non-binding most parties were willing to follow the outcome.

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Wikipedia