Dutch general election, 1998
Encyclopedia
The General Election to the House of Representatives of the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...

 was held in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

on 6 May 1998.

Result

During the 1998 election the purple coalition
First cabinet of Wim Kok
The First cabinet of Wim Kok , also called the "Purple Coalition" because of its social-democrat and liberal components, was a Dutch government formed by the political parties PVDA, VVD and D66. D66 had won its greatest political victory with the slogan that the Christian Democratic Appeal should...

, with social-democrats, democrats and liberals fortified its majority. Both the social-democratic PvdA and the conservative liberal VVD won considerably, much at the cost of their junior partner in cabinet, the progressive liberal D66.

Political observers attributed the win to the economic performance of the coalition, including reduction of unemployment and the budget deficit, steady growth and job creation combined with wage freezes and trimming of the welfare state, together with a policy of fiscal restraint.

The two small left opposition parties, the green GroenLinks, and the socialist SP, were rewarded for their 'quality opposition'. The major opposition party, CDA, uncomfortable in its opposition role, also lost seats. The two parties for the elderly AOV and Unie 55+ and the rightwing populist CD did not return to parliament.

The formation resulted in the continuation of the Kok cabinet, with the second Kok cabinet
Second cabinet of Wim Kok
The Second cabinet of Wim Kok was the government of the Netherlands headed by Prime Minister Wim Kok during 1998 to 2002.After the elections to the House of Representatives on 6 May 1998, the allocation of the 150 seats was:...

.

National summary

Party Lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker
Lijsttrekker is a Dutch term for the top candidate of a party on a party list. He or she is almost always the party's political leader. After an election, this person usually leads the party's faction in the States-General, or serves in a senior position in the Cabinet if his party is part of...

Votes % Seats +/-
Labour Party
Labour Party (Netherlands)
The Labour Party , is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. Since the 2003 Dutch General Election, the PvdA has been the second largest political party in the Netherlands. The PvdA was a coalition member in the fourth Balkenende cabinet following 22 February 2007...

Wim Kok
Wim Kok
Willem "Wim" Kok ; born September 29, 1938) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 22, 1994 until July 22, 2002....

2,494,555 28.9 45 + 8
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...

Frits Bolkestein
Frits Bolkestein
Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . He served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 16 January 1978, until 5 November 1982, when he became State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 5 November 1982, until 14 July...

2,124,971 24.6 38 + 7
Christian Democratic Appeal
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
Jakob Gijsbert "Jaap" de Hoop Scheffer is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal . He served as the 11th Secretary General of NATO from January 5, 2004 until August 1, 2009....

1,581,053 18.3 29 - 5
Democrats 66
Democrats 66
Democrats 66 is a progressive and social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned, young intellectuals, led by journalist Hans van Mierlo. The party's main objective was to democratise the political system; it proposed to create an...

Els Borst
Els Borst
Else Borst-Eilers is a former Dutch Politician, she led D66 in the 1998 election campaign and served as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport for eight years, and the last four as Deputy Prime Minister. Before entering politics she had a career in medicine.-Education and Academic Career:Borst...

773,497 8.9 14 - 10
GreenLeft
GreenLeft
GreenLeft is a green political party operating in the Netherlands.GreenLeft was formed on 1 March 1989 as a merger of four left-wing political parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party...

Paul Rosenmöller
Paul Rosenmöller
Paul Rosenmöller is a Dutch television presenter and former politician and trade unionist. Between 1989 and 2003, he was member of the Dutch House of Representatives for GroenLinks .-Biography:...

625,968 7.2 11 + 6
Socialist Party
Socialist Party (Netherlands)
The Socialist Party is a democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. After the 2006 general election, the Socialist Party became one of the major parties of the Netherlands with 25 seats of 150, an increase of 16 seats. The party was in opposition against the fourth Balkenende cabinet...

Jan Marijnissen
Jan Marijnissen
Johannes Guillaume Christianus Andreas Marijnissen is a Dutch politician of the Socialist Party . He served as Parliamentary leader in House of Representatives May 5, 1994 until June 20, 2008...

303,703 3.5 5 + 3
Reformatory Political Federation
Reformatory Political Federation
The Reformatory Political Federation was a minor Protestant Christian political party in the Netherlands.-History:The RPF was founded in 1975 by three groups of orthodox Christians...

Leen van Dijke
Leen van Dijke
Leendert Cornelis van Dijke is a Dutch manager and former politician and carpenter.As a member of the Reformatory Political Federation and its successor the ChristianUnion he was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives from 1994 to 2003 as well as Parliamentary leader from...

174,593 2.0 3 0
Reformed Political Party
Reformed Political Party
The Reformed Political Party is an orthodox Protestant Dutch political party. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform, but is a synonym for Calvinist. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands in its current form, and for its entire existence has been in opposition...

Bas van der Vlies
Bas van der Vlies
Bastiaan Johannis van der Vlies is a former Dutch politician of the Reformed Political Party . He was a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands from June 10, 1981 until June 17, 2010. However, this does not make him the longest serving MP, Duymaer van Twist served for almost 45...

153,583 1.7 3 + 1
Reformed Political League
Reformed Political League
The Reformed Political League was a Dutch orthodox Protestant political party. The GPV is one of the predecessors of the ChristenUnie...

Gert Schutte
Gert Schutte
Gerrit Jan Schutte is a former Dutch politician. He was a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the Reformed Political League and in the end for the ChristianUnion.- Biography :...

108,724 1.2 2 0
Centre Democrats (Netherlands)
Centre Democrats (Netherlands)
The Centre Democrats was a political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 1984 by members who split out from the Centre Party , the Centre Democrats was joined one month later by the only CP Member of Parliament—Hans Janmaat. Janmaat went on to become the leader of the party, which...

Hans Janmaat
Hans Janmaat
Johannes Gerardus Hendrikus "Hans" Janmaat was a Dutch politician of the Centre Party and later his own formed Centre Democrats . He was Parliamentary leader of the Centre Party in the House of Representatives from September 16, 1982 until October 15, 1984 when he was expelled from the party...

52,226 0.5 - -3
General Elderly Alliance
General Elderly Alliance
The General Elderly Alliance was a Dutch pensioners' political party. The AOV was very successful in the 1994 elections but disappeared four years later.-Party History:...

/Union 55+
Union 55+
Union 55+ was a Dutch pensioners' political party. The Union was somewhat successful in the 1994 elections but disappeared four years later.-Party History:...

45,994 0.5 - -7
Others 169,920 2.0 - 0
Total 8.607.787 100.0 150 0

External Resources

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