According to CBS, these elections are the first in which more than fifty percent of the voters are over fifty years old. According to the same figures, that percentage is slightly higher in Drenthe, namely 59 percent. In the municipality of Westerveld, no fewer than two in three voters are over fifty. In Meppel the percentage is 53 percent.
“There is a kind of idea that young people are left-wing and as they get older they become more and more right-wing,” confirms political scientist Kees Aarts. “But that’s more of a generational thing.” According to Aarts, voters generally form their voting preference at a young age and it largely remains the same afterwards. “Do you become politically different as you get older? To the best of my knowledge, that phenomenon is very weak.”
The opinion of the RUG political scientist is echoed by SKON, the Netherlands Voter Research Foundation. In their research into voting behavior in the previous House of Representatives elections, they specifically mention it. “Young people are also an interesting group because people form their political views between about the ages of 12 and 25. After this stage of life, most people hold on to their most fundamental beliefs. For example, someone who is left-wing and cosmopolitan at age 25 will only rarely be right-wing and nationalist at the age of 65.”
In short, a generation that was used to voting for the PvdA and the CDA is dying out. The VVD voter takes that place. With that fact in mind, political scientist Aarts dares to make a statement: “You can predict that the Netherlands will not suddenly become a lot more left-wing.”
According to Aarts, young voters also vote more easily for new parties, such as Volt or Forum voor Democratie. Or at parties with a new face. “D66 is also in a trough, but sometimes scores with a new party leader. Then the young people get behind it again.”
According to Professor Aarts, the relatively higher age says nothing about the voters in Drenthe. “Drenthe is a relatively grayer province, but with all these types of developments it is not the case that you can say anything about it one-on-one. Because the variation within a province is always greater.”