An advisory referendum on the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (Dutch : Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten 2017, abbreviated 'Wiv') was held in the Netherlands on 21 March 2018, alongside the municipal elections. It was the second referendum to be held under the Dutch Advisory Referendum Act after the 2016 Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum.
A plurality of voters (49.44%) voted against the law, resulting in its rejection. Voter turnout was 51.5%, above the 30% threshold for validation of the result. [1] Although the referendum itself was non-binding, Prime Minister Mark Rutte had promised to take a potential "no" vote into account prior to the referendum. [2]
The result of the referendum was swiftly completely disregarded with the act coming into force two months later, [3] being the third referendum in a row in which the winning side did not have their wishes respected by the government.
The draft Intelligence and Security Agencies Act 2017 was laid before the States General by the Government of the Netherlands at the end of 2016. On 14 February 2017, a majority in the House of Representatives voted in support of the act, [4] which was then approved in the Senate on 11 July. [5] Although a referendum will be held, the government has indicated it plans for the law to nevertheless to go into effect on 1 May 2018. [6]
Stage | Required | Received | Valid |
---|---|---|---|
Preliminary requests | 10,000 | 19,266 | 17,162 [7] |
Definitive requests | 300,000 | 417,354 | 384,126 [8] |
A campaign to obtain sufficient support declarations for a referendum was initiated by a group of students at the University of Amsterdam concerned about the sweeping surveillance powers granted to the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) under the law. [6] On 1 November 2017, the Electoral Council (Kiesraad) announced that a sufficient number of signatures had been collected to trigger an advisory referendum on the tapping law, with 384,126 valid signatures, over 92 percent of those collected, well above the 300,000 required for a referendum. [9]
The referendum comes after the formation of the Third Rutte cabinet following the 2017 general election, [9] with the coalition divided whether to hold a referendum on the law, Democrats 66 (D66) being the only one of the four coalition parties that voted against disregarding the result ahead of the referendum. [10]
The party positions listed below are based on the vote of the law in the House of Representatives on 14 February 2017, with the exception of Forum for Democracy (FvD), which was not represented in the lower chamber before the 2017 general election. [11]
Party | Current seats | Position | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
VVD | People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie | 33 / 150 | For | |
PVV | Party for Freedom Partij voor de Vrijheid | 20 / 150 | For* | |
CDA | Christian Democratic Appeal Christen-Democratisch Appèl | 19 / 150 | For | |
D66 | Democrats 66 Democraten 66 | 19 / 150 | For | |
GL | GreenLeft GroenLinks | 14 / 150 | Against | |
SP | Socialist Party Socialistische Partij | 14 / 150 | Against | |
PvdA | Labour Party Partij van de Arbeid | 9 / 150 | For | |
CU | Christian Union ChristenUnie | 5 / 150 | For | |
PvdD | Party for the Animals Partij voor de Dieren | 5 / 150 | Against | |
50+ | 50PLUS | 4 / 150 | For | |
SGP | Reformed Political Party Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij | 3 / 150 | For | |
DENK | Denk | 3 / 150 | Against | |
FvD | Forum for Democracy Forum voor Democratie | 2 / 150 | Against |
* PVV announced that even though they voted in favour, they would respect the outcome of the referendum.
Polling firm | Date | For | Against | Don't know | Will not vote | Lead |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ipsos | 20 Mar 2018 | 53 | 34 | 13 | – | 19 |
I&O Research | 12 Mar 2018 | 51 | 30 | 19 | – | 21 |
Peil.nl | 11 Mar 2018 | 45 | 42 | 13 | – | 3 |
Kantar Public | 4 Mar 2018 | 35 | 24 | 26 | 15 | 10 |
Ipsos | 26 Feb 2018 | 48 | 32 | 20 | – | 16 |
I&O Research | 6 Feb 2018 | 42 | 28 | 30 | – | 14 |
Kantar Public | 28 Jan 2018 | 32 | 22 | 30 | 16 | 10 |
Peil.nl | 3 Dec 2017 | 40 | 60 | – | – | 20 |
I&O Research [ permanent dead link ] | 30 Oct 2017 | 52 | 32 | 17 | – | 20 |
I&O Research | 9 Oct 2017 | 50 | 30 | 20 | – | 20 |
I&O Research | 11 Sep 2017 | 60 | 24 | 17 | – | 36 |
Polling firm | Date | For | Against | Don't know | Lead |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GfK | 31 Oct 2017 | 34 | 53 | 13 | 19 |
GfK | 23 Oct 2017 | 40 | 49 | 11 | 9 |
Choice | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
For | 3,122,628 | 46.53 | |
Against | 3,317,496 | 49.44 | |
Blank | 270,288 | 4.03 | |
Total | 6,710,412 | 100.00 | |
Valid votes | 6,710,412 | 99.65 | |
Invalid votes | 23,813 | 0.35 | |
Total votes | 6,734,225 | 100.00 | |
Registered voters/turnout | 13,064,932 | 51.54 | |
Source: Kiesraad |
Province or territory | Electorate | Voter turnout | In favour | Against | Blank | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Drenthe | 387,611 | 54.16 | 99,787 | 47.72 | 100,850 | 48.23 | 8,472 | 4.05 |
Flevoland | 297,206 | 50.28 | 67,377 | 45.24 | 77,168 | 51.81 | 4,390 | 2.95 |
Friesland | 504,855 | 42.80 | 97,594 | 45.30 | 111,049 | 51.55 | 6,779 | 3.15 |
Gelderland | 1,602,016 | 54.19 | 415,207 | 48.01 | 411,924 | 47.63 | 37,737 | 4.36 |
Groningen | 458,131 | 37.22 | 61,200 | 35.97 | 105,009 | 61.72 | 3,916 | 2.30 |
Limburg | 873,201 | 50.23 | 206,901 | 47.33 | 209,891 | 48.02 | 20,310 | 4.65 |
North Brabant | 1,947,973 | 48.43 | 469,115 | 49.90 | 430,932 | 45.84 | 40,032 | 4.26 |
North Holland | 2,075,436 | 52.87 | 453,840 | 41.51 | 598,606 | 54.75 | 40,927 | 3.74 |
Overijssel | 882,344 | 56.92 | 247,309 | 49.41 | 230,930 | 46.14 | 22,311 | 4.46 |
Utrecht | 969,421 | 57.65 | 253,208 | 45.46 | 278,935 | 50.08 | 24,863 | 4.46 |
Zeeland | 291,514 | 56.70 | 88,950 | 54.02 | 69,174 | 42.01 | 6,536 | 3.97 |
South Holland | 2,760,065 | 51.22 | 661,822 | 47.00 | 692,443 | 49.17 | 54,009 | 3.84 |
Caribbean Netherlands | 15,159 | 6.06 | 318 | 34.98 | 585 | 64.36 | 6 | 0.66 |
Source: Kiesraad |
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right, which promotes private enterprise and economic liberalism.
Democrats 66 is a social liberal political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the centre of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
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The Military Intelligence and Security Service is the military intelligence service of the Netherlands, which operates under the Ministry of Defence. It is tasked with investigating the security of the armed forces and collects military intelligence from and about foreign countries. The civilian counterpart is the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), which operates under the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
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