As it now seems, there will be no Drent in the Senate. Of the 75 seats that can be divided in the Senate, at least 71 will not go to a Drent.
This is evident from the data collected by the Parliamentary Documentation Center (PDC) of Leiden University. More than half of the members of the Senate will be renewed, but the new composition will not include Drent.
Of the 75, 71 candidate members of the Senate are known. None of the 71 potential members of the Senate is from Drenthe. Only the PVV has not yet announced all their candidates. Only the leader of the PVV, Marjolein Faber, is clear. It remains to be seen who the other four candidates are. Nico Uppelschoten of Drentse PVV says he does not know whether a Drenthe candidate will be on the list and is waiting when the final list is available.
There is no Drent in the current Senate either, but there was still some connection with Drenthe because of former Hijkenaar Henk Otten. Otten will disappear from the Senate in the current composition. Tanja Klip, former deputy and alderman in Coevorden is currently in the Senate for the VVD and is being re-elected, but no longer lives in Drenthe.
Drenthe is not the only province without a member of the Senate, because Zeeland also has to do without members in the Senate. According to an analysis by PDC, the new Senate is more diverse than the current Senate when it comes to regional distribution.
The final nomination for the Senate election is on 25 April. In theory, Drenthes can still enter the Senate, but then they must be elected on May 30. That chance is not great, since the vote value of a vote of the member of the Drenthe Parliament has also decreased during this Senate election.