The Dutch House of Representatives elections in November 2023 promise to be one of the most exciting in years. This summer, Prime Minister Mark Rutte left and every well-known face in Dutch politics quickly followed suit. The question now is whether this changing political landscape will mean anything for technology and digitalization. To clarify this, Tweckers looked at the electoral manifestos of most of the major political parties participating in the elections. We don’t offer voting advice, but we list everything that touches on the topic for each party, whether it’s a digital euro, more money to fight cybercrime or privacy legislation.

About this article

In this article we read eighteen election manifestos. We describe for each party the aspects of digitalization or technology embedded in the software. We give each party its own page, but we’ve also written a summary of frequently recurring themes. You can read the individual party programs here:

In this article we looked at all the political parties currently in the House of Representatives. In an ideal world, we would read all party manifestos for all parties participating in the election, but according to the Electoral Council there are currently 26 parties.

However, we make a number of exceptions. One such exception is the Pirate Party, which we also listed in the previous version of this article. The reason for this is that the Pirate Party, especially traditionally, has mainly defended ICT, digitalization and privacy. It was the party’s spearhead for years, although it has become less important in recent years. This year the party forms a list with the Green Party. We will continue to monitor whether the Pirate Party will remain a primarily digital party and therefore interesting for this overview, or whether we should pay less attention to it in the future, but given their platform we still think it is appropriate for now.

The other exception is for independent representatives. In recent years, many politicians have separated from their parties. We do not include these politicians, because we prefer to look at parties rather than people. But this also has an exception: Peter Omtzgut. He sits He has not been at CDA since June 2021But given the performance of his new party, the New Social Contract, in the polls, it is unreasonable not to include this party in this overview.

In this article you will find a link to the election manifesto in question not only here, but also on the pages of the parties themselves. The importance of this cannot be underestimated: you may not be making your decision solely on the basis of what the party thinks on technical issues. The election manifesto states what the party wants.

If they end up sitting at the table for a coalition agreement, negotiators will use that platform as a basis. Debates, posters, voting guides and simple phrases are fun, but only by looking at the platform of the parties you might be voting for will you be able to know exactly what they think. That way you can finally make an informed decision when you stand in the voting booth on November 22nd.