Elections for all 50 seats in the Senate of the Netherlands were held on 27 May 1937. The snap elections, held a day after a snap general election, were triggered by the passing of a proposed constitutional amendment.
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Senators were elected by provincial councils in four "electoral groups". Group I comprised North Brabant, Zeeland, Utrecht and Limburg; group II comprised Gelderland, Overijssel, Groningen and Drenthe; group III comprised North Holland and Friesland; and group IV comprised South Holland. Within each electoral group, Senators were elected by provincial councils using party-list proportional representation. Provincial councillors' votes were weighted to their province's population. [1]
The 25 incumbent Senators for groups II and IV were previously elected five years prior in the 1932 Senate election, while the 25 incumbent Senators for groups I and III were elected two years prior in the 1935 Senate election. This was the last Senate election before the outbreak of World War II.
The election saw the incumbent government's majority shrink from 37 to 34 seats, with the Liberal State Party losing two seats, and the Free-thinking Democratic League losing one. In group III, one seats changed hands from the Anti-Revolutionary Party to the Christian Historical Union, both government parties. The National Socialist Movement gained two seats, while the Social Democratic Workers' Party gained one.
