Rutger Ploum, chairman of the Christian Democrats, has resigned, citing his party’s disappointing result in this week’s general election.

The CDA lost four of their 19 seats in Wednesday’s vote and are now the fourth biggest party in parliament, behind the two Liberal parties VVD and D66 and the far right PVV.

Ploum is the first casualty among the parties which performed badly in the vote. GroenLinks and the Socialists saw their support virtually halved and there too questions have been raised about the leadership.

Wopke Hoekstra, who led the campaign, told reporters on Thursday that the election result was disappointing but that he had no intention of standing down.

Hoekstra agreed to take over as campaign leader in December after health minister Hugo de Jonge, who beat the highly popular Pieter Omtzigt in the leadership contest, decided he could not focus on the election and coronavirus.

Hoekstra, who is finance minister in the caretaker cabinet, said on Twitter that he wanted to thank Ploum for all his hard work as party chairman.