Generation 2025: How do Dutch political parties talk to young voters?

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Tomorrow, Dutch voters will go to the polls for what could be the most decisive legislative elections in recent decades. Indeed, the Netherlands can turn the page on the far right and place the left-wing coalition ahead. On October 29, young voters will head to voting stations, hoping to find solutions to issues that matter most to them. Many students feel a growing gap between political promises and their daily realities. Some candidates try to appeal to the youth, using TikTok to advertise their program, but this is not considered enough for the youth, as it does not address their concerns. 

Our team examined questions related to students' concerns, from climate change to housing and the EU. This is a choice of the piece writer, after examining the priorities set by each party in their programs. Therefore, this article proposes a comparative overview of these issues in the programs of the main parties engaged in the elections: far-right PVV, left-wing alliance GL/PvdA, centre-left D66, right-wing VVD, and Christian Democrats CDA, according to polls of Dutch media NOS and Trouw. After sending an invitation to representatives of these parties, only Marc Vervuurt, candidate for the party D66 and city councillor in Venlo, accepted to answer our questions. 

Our house is on fire… 

…And many parties still look elsewhere. Climate change is a growing priority for young Dutch citizens, according to the NL Times. It is shown that 80% of 18 to 24-year-olds are conscious of their impact on the environment. They were 62% in 2023. Also, a 2023 study, led by the Dutch office for statistics, showed that 76% of Dutch aged 18+ were worried about climate change. A majority of them were not satisfied with the right-wing government’s measures on the environment, and wanted more ambitious actions. Looking at the right-wing VVD, they concentrate their environmental program on supporting growth, while adopting a green trajectory. Also, they promote green economic growth by increasing the share of nuclear energy. By 2050, they aim to produce three times more nuclear energy than today. Lastly, they want to sustain innovation to make the Netherlands greener without harming growth. However, their manifesto presents a section on increasing airplane transport. This appears counterintuitive, at a moment when 73% of Dutch people thought that aviation was not doing enough for the environment. 

On the contrary, GroenLinks/PVDA positioned themselves as the “only reasonable force to tackle climate change”. The coalition held its congress at the end of September, and they claimed that their program, with the concrete solutions it presents, is the only one able to address the challenge. Their main propositions are to increase the proportion of renewable energies in the Dutch energy mix, which represents 20% of their energy, while phasing out the use of fossil fuels. The party is strongly opposed to nuclear energy. Lastly, they want to increase the distribution of locally produced food and make it affordable for everyone. The D66 party is also ambitious in its measures towards climate change. They insist on the need to link the transition with the development of technologies. “We aim to be a locomotive on this topic. In the former cabinet, Rob Jetten [D66 Party leader] influenced many green projects”, explained Marc Vervuurt. When I asked him about the first measure that the party will take for the environment, he answered, “The electrification of industries.” This is aligned with the reduction of fossil fuels. D66 is open to the use of nuclear energy.

The party leading the polls today, Geert Wilders’ PVV, does not have a clear program for the environment, as it is not the main priority of the party. In the meantime, even if they do not formulate propositions, they also claim to reject any additional measures in favour of the environment. Their program is focused on supporting farmers and agriculture. 

This focus is the same as the CDA. Indeed, if the Christian-Democrats claim to move towards renewable energies and commit to the Paris Agreement Objectives, they also focus on agriculture and the farmers. One measure I was interested in was their project to restore a nitrogen fund, giving more flexibility to farmers to address the nitrogen issue, and having longer deadlines to commit to the objectives. This echoes a crisis that started in 2019, when the Rutte cabinet wanted to have stronger measures to reduce nitrogen pollution. Indeed, Dutch soils are polluted with Nitrogen coming mainly from agriculture. These measures brought tensions with Dutch farmers, resulting in massive protests. With this measure, the CDA supports the farmer movements and gives them more flexibility. However, this will not satisfy the 34% of voters who claimed that the agriculture sector was not doing enough for green policies, as these measures don’t impose more restrictions. 

Den Haag & Brussels  

The Netherlands always had a strong voice in the European Union, which weakened with the previous cabinet. When I interviewed Marc Vervuurt at the end of August, he told me that the EU would be the “elephant in the room during the campaign.” This was verified because it was not a significant issue compared to the discussions on immigration or housing, as polls indicate. Still, many parties have propositions regarding the place of the Netherlands and the EU, and the internationalization of the country. 

Firstly, all parties acknowledge that defense is a key point in the current international context. Indeed, as tensions grow on the international stage, they all agree on the necessity to increase the expenses for defense. However, there are disagreements on European cooperation on this. 

GroenLinks-PvdA is a pro-European party, and they want to participate actively in the deepening of democracy and Dutch participation in the EU. Indeed, the party wants to play on the image and expertise of Frans Timmermans, a former European Commission member in charge of institutional relations, rule of law, and fundamental rights (2014-2019) and Commissioner for the European Green Deal (2019-2023). He was also the First Vice-President of the Commission between 2014 and 2023. Before his European career, he was the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2012 and 2014. He has extensive experience in European and international affairs. Therefore, they put this image forward and have used it for their campaign. 

VVD also has a strong EU positioning, and they support an active participation of the Netherlands in EU projects. They are also calling for a “multi-speed” Europe, enabling the Netherlands and other countries that want to act to move forward quickly. 

On the other hand, the CDA agrees with supporting European initiatives and values, but they don’t want to “support a Dutch leadership” in EU projects. Therefore, they do not want to play as active a role as proposed by other parties. Also, D66 wants to take action on issues where the Netherlands has influence, like the rule of law and justice. They also express support for Ukraine, like almost every other party, and claim to intend to increase European defense. 

Finally, the far-right PVV keeps denouncing a European “superstate.” They want to get rid of the burden of European norms, and they want to put priority on the Netherlands before the European Union. They intend to achieve this by increasing the budget for defense and security, but outside of NATO and European frameworks. 

Generation 2025

Dear reader, you may be reading this article as an international student in Maastricht. Know that more than 60% of students at Maastricht University were foreigners in 2024. However, internationalization of education is not a priority for all parties. It might even become a ground for conflicts in the next years… 

One party puts education and international students as a priority. Indeed, D66 claims that the Netherlands shall be the “campus of the EU.” Marc Vervuurt told me that “D66 is the education party. We need to cherish this international dimension of our young generation.” 

GroenLinks-PvdA also makes education a priority, but there are no clear policies regarding the number of international students. They want to manage the number of international students in programs that need to be in English. Still, as explained earlier, the European project plays a key role in their policy, so they should not include restrictions. This part of their program seems to lack clarity. 

However, for other parties, programs are more about restrictions on international students. 

For the CDA, restrictions shall apply to certain regions, acknowledging that international programs are necessary for the economic development of some provinces. So, these restrictions shall be studied for each individual case. Still, something that should apply to the whole country is the introduction of mandatory Dutch language courses.  

For Geert Wilders’ party, it is necessary to have Bachelor's Programs only in Dutch because, according to them, foreign students don’t bring enough to the Dutch economy. According to the Dutch organisation Nuffic, which promotes internationalisation in education, 75% of international students leave after their studies, which Wilders sees as a big loss. Therefore, restrictions shall be imposed on the arrival of foreign students. This echoes their hardline program against immigration and the priority put on the Netherlands. 

Finally, the VVD wants to control the number of international students in the Netherlands, stating that it is detrimental to Dutch students. This directly echoes the linked topic of housing, which is our last theme.  

Major crisis 

Undoubtedly, housing is the main campaign topic for all the big parties. Indeed, there is a growing housing shortage in the Netherlands, and students of Maastricht know a lot about it… Competition is tough, and the rental market has severe dysfunction, according to the Guardian.

Housing has been a priority for many parties, but they disagree on the actions to take. There is a common agreement among all parties to build new houses and neighbourhoods, to make more houses available. D66 even announced that they want to build 10 new cities, while Yesilgoz’s VVD wants to “bouwen, bouwen, bouwen” (build, build, build). Another point is to make housing more affordable. For right-wing parties, CDA and VVD, this implies reducing taxes. For the far-right PVV, finding housing shall be easier for the Dutch population. They shall have priority over foreign individuals and families. This is also associated with a 10% reduction in housing allocations, making it more difficult for vulnerable people to afford housing. Meanwhile, GroenLinks/PvdA wants to increase social housing (“the priority of the next decades”) and build at least 100,000 affordable homes. This is echoed by D66, which wants to create affordable housing with the shortest possible delays. “We need to use what is there. We can, for example, transform abandoned buildings into housing. This allows us to make it available soon, and is aligned with our green policies,” explained Vervuurt. 

These new constructions also align with parties’ priorities. Indeed, for D66 and GL/PvdA, these new houses shall be green and sustainable. On the other hand, VVD, CDA, and PVV insist on the necessity to support elderly people to move to more appropriate housing for them, and to increase security in the neighbourhoods. 

Time will tell 

What could the new cabinet look like? This is the main question that Dutch voters are asking themselves. Many different coalitions are possible with small parties, but past cabinets have shown that working with small parties makes coalitions fragile. 

Today, the polls put PVV first, followed by GL/PVDA, tightly followed by CDA. It is not possible to precisely predict which parties will compose the coalition today. The multiplicity and the variety of parties composing the Dutch political spectrum make it difficult to design a coalition. Moreover, polls have made errors in the previous elections, failing to predict the victory of Geert Wilders in 2023. But, looking at the current political situation, parties excluded working with PVV because they led to the collapse of the previous coalition, and repeated this stance in a recent live TV show. So will it result in a coalition of the Greens and socialists with right-wing liberals? Or a centrist coalition? Who will be appointed Prime Minister? We will discover it soon. One thing is certain: the Maastricht Diplomat will make sure to explain everything you need to know!