European Parliament election, 2009 (Netherlands)

Netherlands European Parliament election, 2009

← 2004 4 June 2009 2014 →
25 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	36.90%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Esther de Lange Barry Madlener Thijs Berman Party CDA PVV PvdA Alliance EPP NI PES Seats won 5 / 25 4 / 25 3 / 25 Seat change 2 4 4 Popular vote 913,233 772,746 548,691 Percentage 20.05% 16.97% 12.05% Swing 4.33% new 11.60%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Hans van Baalen Sophie in 't Veld Judith Sargentini Party VVD D66 GL Alliance ALDE ALDE Greens-EFA Seats won 3 / 25 3 / 25 3 / 25 Seat change 1 2 1 Popular vote 518,643 515,422 404,020 Percentage 11.39% 11.32% 8.87% Swing 1.81% 7.08% 1.53%   Seventh party Eighth party   Leader Dennis de Jong Peter van Dalen Party SP CU-SGP Alliance EUL/NGL ECR / EFD Seats won 2 / 25 2 / 25 Seat change 0 0 Popular vote 323,269 310,540 Percentage 7.10% 6.82% Swing 0.13% 0.91%

The European Parliament election of 2009 in the Netherlands took place on June 4, 2009. Seventeen parties competed in a D'Hondt type election for the available 25 seats (down from 27). For the first time, all Dutch residents of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were also entitled to vote in the election.

The ChristianUnion and SGP formed a common list ChristenUnie/SGP for the European Parliament election. Moreover, several parties formed an electoral alliance:

All three alliances would be eligible for a remainder seat, because all the parties involved won a seat in the European Parliament. Without the alliance between the Dutch Labour Party and Greenleft, GreenLeft would have only two seats and PVV would have five seats. The other electoral alliances had no effect on the overall seats awarded.

The Netherlands Antilles and Aruba were granted the right to vote in the European Parliament election by a verdict of the Council of State which stated that it is illegal to differentiate in law between people with Dutch nationality in Europe and outside. The government granted all persons of Dutch nationality voting rights for European elections. Before the verdict, only people who had lived in the Netherlands for 10 years or longer were allowed to vote. This ruling increased the number of people entitled to vote by 210,000. Only 20,944 people registered to vote from the islands in this election. The turnout of registered voters in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba was 77% (rest of the world 66%.) This new voting right does not change the position of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. They are not considered to be part of the European Union and they do not need to adopt European law.

Before this election, people placed under a guardian were not allowed to vote. Usually a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for their own interests. A ruling of the Council of State decided that this was not allowed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is not known how many people this affected, as there is no central register for individuals under guardianship.

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