DutchNews.nl readers poll: international workers have their say

Mark Rutte and the right-wing VVD won a narrow victory in the DutchNews.nl election poll, picking up 21.6% of the potential international worker vote – and almost doubling their support from the previous DN poll in 2018.

GroenLinks and D66 were in joint second place, with just under 20% support, while newcomers Volt and BIJ1 were in fourth and fifth place, with 7.1% and 6.2% support, respectively.

Geert Wilders’ far right PVV managed just 5.3% support in the DutchNews.nl poll, compared with an estimated 10% in the real general election while Thierry Baudet’s Forum voor Democratie scraped in at 3.4%.

Translated into seats in parliament, 12 parties would be represented in a DutchNews.nl lower house. In reality, 17 parties may win seats in the 150 seat Tweede Kamer.

‘The most notable difference with the likely real results is that the two more orthodox Christian parties would win no seats in the DN poll, while the Christian Democrats would scrape just two,’ said DutchNews.nl editor Robin Pascoe.

Only Dutch nationals can vote in the general election, leaving tens of thousands of taxpayers unrepresented.

DutchNews.nl regularly carries out polls of readers’ voting intentions and over 2,800 people took part in this year’s three-day poll for the national elections.

In the 2018 local elections, D66 and GroenLinks emerged as the key favourites among international workers. Both parties had between 23% and 24% of the expat vote, double the support of the VVD, which took 12%.

Support for the PvdA was 9%, while the SP, fourth in 2014, plunged in popularity from 11% to 5%.