The one-liners are flying around our ears again in the debates, election posters are increasingly common on the streets and radio and TV almost exclusively feature politicians. It is clear: the elections are now really close. One of the voting aids that is on red hot these weeks is the Electoral Compass, which has already been completed by almost 30,000 Drenthe residents. And we also see how Drenthe thinks about themes such as nuclear power stations, mortgage interest deduction and childcare.
This time next week, the results of the House of Representatives elections will largely be known and we will know who will (hopefully) occupy the 150 seats over the next four years. Then it is time for the new parliament to implement their plans.
Kieskompas also keeps track of the voting intentions of voters who have completed the voting aid. This allows the supporters of the various parties to be compared with each other on the thirty statements included in the Electoral Compass. Most of these statements yield results that you would expect from the parties.
With regard to the statement ‘More money should be spent on development cooperation’, a large majority of voters from PVV, VVD, BBB, FvD and JA21 do not agree with this statement, while left-wing parties such as GroenLinks/PvdA, Denk, PvdD and CU would like to spend more on development cooperation.
The same trend can be seen in ‘Nature areas in the Netherlands must become larger, even if agricultural land disappears’. Parties on the left of the political spectrum are often more focused on nature and the environment. This statement can then count on approval from GroenLinks/PvdA, D66, Denk, PvdD and Volt. Parties that traditionally stand up for farmers, such as BBB, SGP, CDA, PVV and VVD, see little benefit in this measure. The same applies to the statement ‘The mortgage interest deduction should be further reduced’.
Yet there are a number of themes that cannot be captured by the left-right division. Such as, for example, the statement ‘The Netherlands must build more nuclear power stations’. A majority of voters from, for example, PVV, VVD and JA21 are in favour, but this also applies to people who intend to vote for D66, CU and Volt.
There also seems to be consensus on the statement ‘Building owner-occupied homes has a higher priority than building social rental homes’ on all sides of the political spectrum. Only VVD and JA21 voters are here more often Agree than Disagree checked, voters from all other parties check this statement more often Disagree On.