Losing out politically means losing out financially, according to a survey carried out by the Financieele Dagblad into the annual reports of political parties.

The Christian Democrats, the left-wing green party GroenLinks and Labour (PvdA) have all seen their income fall and are taking steps to cut expenditure, the FD reports.

Labour is planning to scrap nine of its 53 full-time jobs, GroenLinks has made savings of €930,000 on personnel and party activities, and the Christian Democrats are planning to bring their party machine down to the ‘absolute minimum’, although they do not say how many jobs will go, according to the FD.

Loss of members

The biggest source of the financial problems is loss of seats leading to a reduction in the number of paid-up members. The Christian Democrats, quoted by the FD as an example, went from 41 seats in parliament in 2006 to 13 at the last general election in 2012. The number of members fell from 69,600 in 2006 to 56,300 at the end of 2013.

Profit

Parties who did well at the last general election show a profit, the FD says. The Liberal Democrat VVD, which went from 22 seats in 2006 to 41 in 2012, made a profit of €1.4m, while the left-wing Liberal D66 booked a profit of €1.1m when its number of seats rose from three to 12.

Political parties in the Netherlands rely on the contributions of their members and on government subsidies based on the number of members and seats.

The anti-immigration party was not included in the survey because party leader Geert Wilders refuses to publish financial information.