In addition to the parties covered in their own posts, there are a few minor parties that have less than 10 seats in the House of Representatives.  We will do a quicker overview of these parties, as they play a part in coalition making and in Dutch politics in general but have a smaller role than the large parties.

Christian Union (CU)

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Christian Union Party Leader Ger-Jan Segers (Picture from Wikipedia)

The Christian Union is a centrist christian democratic and social conservative party that combines both center-right and center-left policy positions.  They were founded in 2001 and have been a small party in Dutch politics ever since.  The CU has served as a junior coalition partner between 2006 and 2010, as part of the fourth Balkenende cabinet and now serves as the smallest partner in the four party governing coalition with the VVD, the CDA, and D66.

Policies*

Some of the CU’s social policies include a one-earner model (government promotion of one parent staying at home with children), opposition to euthanasia, pro-life when it comes to abortion, making soft-drugs illegal, openness to asylum seekers, and defending the creation of private schools.  On foreign policy they oppose further integration with the EU and are soft-euroskeptics.  On economic policy they are more center-left: wanting slightly lower income taxes but encourage state control over education and healthcare.  They are not completely opposed to market forces in these sectors though, unlike the Labour Party.
christian-union-spectrum
(Sources: Wikipedia, Christian Union Policies)

Recent Electoral History

House of Representatives: In 2017 the party received 3.4% of the vote and 5 out of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.  The CU finished in 8th place, moving down one place but gaining 0.3% of the vote from the previous election, keeping the same number of seats.
Senate: The CU won 3 out of the 75 seats in the Senate in the 2015 Senate Election, finishing in 8th place.  Members of the Senate are selected by the states.
European Parliament: The Christian Union is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group in the European Parliament.  In the 2014 European Parliament elections, they finished in 8th place with 6.8% of the vote in a joint ticket with the Reformed Political Party (SGP), earning 2 out of the 26 seats allocated to the Netherlands.
State Parliaments: The CU holds 29 out of 570 seats throughout the state parliaments following the 2015 Regional Elections, which makes them the 8th strongest party throughout the states.  They managed to gain 6 seats from the previous elections.

Election Review

Nothing significant changed for the CU in the 2017 elections, effectively receiving the same results as 2012.  They are now part of the governing coalition, though, so they will consider that a success.
As of September of 2018, the CU is polling around 4% to 4.5%.

Reformed Political Party (SGP)

The Reformed Political Party is a right-wing Calvinist party whose goal is government based on the Bible.  It is the oldest party in the Netherlands and has always been in the opposition, as the SGP is usually unwilling to negotiate coalition agreements with other parties.

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Reformed Political Party Leader Kees van der Staaij (Photo from Wikipedia)

Policies*

The party is reactionary on social issues, holding many views than often lead to it being called a theocratic party by those who criticize it, despite its insistence on the separation of church and state.  Some of these social policies are: opposition freedom of religion and instead emphasizing “freedom of conscious”, the belief that men and women are not equal (but are equal in value) and have different roles in society, support for the head of the household voting instead of universal suffrage, support for the death penalty, regulated free speech, and a pro-life stance on abortion.  On economics they are more center-right, believing in recent and future budget cuts, decreased taxes, assistance for parents that wish to stay home, a social safety net for the elderly, increased restrictions on working age safety nets, increased emphasis on private charity from churches, and store closures on Sundays (their website also doesn’t work on Sundays).
sgp-dutch
(Sources: Wikipedia, SGP Policies)

Recent Electoral History

House of Representatives: In 2017 the party received 2.1% of the vote and 3 out of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.  The SGP finished in 11th place, decreasing 2 positions from 2012 despite receiving the same percentage of the vote and number of seats.
Senate: The SGP won 2 out of the 75 seats in the Senate in the 2015 Senate Election, finishing in 10th place.  They gained one seat from the previous election.  Members of the Senate are selected by the states.
European Parliament: The Reformed Political Party is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group in the European Parliament.  In the 2014 European Parliament elections, they finished in 8th place with 6.8% of the vote in a joint ticket with the Christian Union, earning 2 out of the 26 seats allocated to the Netherlands.
State Parliaments: The SGP holds 18 out of 570 seats throughout the state parliaments following the 2015 Regional Elections, which makes them the 10th strongest party throughout the states.  They managed to gain 6 seats from the previous elections.

Election Review

The SGP is in the same position it was before: a small opposition party.
As of September of 2018, SGP is polling around 2% to 2.5%

Party for the Animals (PvdD)

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Marianne Thieme’s testimonial party is looking to make gains in the lower house.

The Party for the Animals is a testimonial party in support of animal rights in the Netherlands.  It is a small party but has begun to garner some support from the left-wing.

Policies

The party is overall a generally left-wing party focused on animal rights and environmentalism.  Their policies thus are mainly government control over the agriculture industry and restricted agricultural trade.  The rest of their economic policies follow a very left-wing trend as well, as they advocate for a basic income, keeping the retirement age at 65, green taxes on use of scarce materials combined with a lower income tax for the poor, a a “green balanced budget” ensuring the government at least helps the environment as much as it hurts it, a controlled water board, and opposition to recent budget cuts (and thus a soft opposition to the EU and its budget demands).  On social policy the PvdD is against the death penalty, supportive of freedom of information when it comes to government action, supportive of an open but well controlled acceptance of refugees (especially accepting of children), opposed to mass collection of peoples’ data, supportive of soft drugs, and supportive of gay marriage.
pvdd-spectrum
(Sources: Wikipedia, PvdD Policies)

Recent Electoral History

House of Representatives: In 2017 the party received 3.2% of the vote and 5 out of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.  The PvdD finished in 9th place, and gained 1.3% of the vote from the previous election.
Senate: The PvdD won 2 out of the 75 seats in the 2015 Senate Election, finishing in 9th place.  They gained one seat from the previous election.  Members of the Senate are selected by the states.
European Parliament: The Party for the Animals is a member of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left parliamentary group in the European Parliament.  In the 2014 European Parliament elections, they finished in 9th place with 4.2% of the vote, earning 1 out of the 26 seats allocated to the Netherlands.
State Parliaments: The PvdD holds 18 out of 570 seats throughout the state parliaments following the 2015 Regional Elections, which makes them the 9th strongest party throughout the states.  They managed to gain 11 seats from the previous elections.

Election Review

PvdD will be fairly happy with the results of the 2017 election as they are a small but growing party.  They likely gained some of the support from the collapse of the Labour Party.
As of September of 2018, PvdD is polling around 4.5% to 5.1%.

DENK (DNK)

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The main face of the fledgling DENK party, Tunahan Kuzu, has countered right-wing populist policies with support for the Palestinian state, Muslim countries, and Arab immigrants.  (Photo from Facebook)

DENK is a left-wing party founded by 2 Turkish born members of the House of Representatives who left the Labour Party in 2014.  The main conflict leading to their creation of a separate party was immigration and refugees.  DENK managed to retain those 2 seats plus gain another following the 2017 election.

Policies*

DENK is a very left-wing party when it comes to social issues, as they support the creation of a “racism database”, creating a program of mandatory community service for those who are discriminatory (doing community service for those they discriminated against), training police in discrimination prevention, forming friendship schools for immigrant and non-immigrant children to meet, replacing the Ministry of Defense with the “Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction”, and acceptance of an equal spread of refugees across the country.  On economic policy they support diversity minimum quotas for women and people with migrant backgrounds, 10% of top corporate officials must come from migrant backgrounds, control over the pharmaceutical industry, reduced regulatory burdens on small businesses, a national bank to give loans to small businesses, abolition of the property tax, maximum of 70% of municipal lands can be owned by big developers, restrictions on rent increases, and reduced international trade.  They also call for the recognition of the Palestinian state and sending 1% of GDP in development aid to poor countries.
denk-spectrum
(Sources: Wikipedia, DENK Policies)

Recent Electoral History

House of Representatives: DENK holds 3 seats in the House of Representatives after receiving 2.1% of the vote in their first election.  They finished in 12th place.
Senate: N/A
European Parliament: N/A
State Parliaments: N/A

Election Review

DENK will be happy with the 2017 results, having not only retained their seats but also gaining an additional one.  They are still a minor party, but for a minority-interests party, they will be satisfied with what they have.
As of September of 2018, DENK is polling around 1.8% to 3%.

Read our analysis of other Dutch Political Parties:

*Disclaimer: The policy positions in this article have been evaluated using Wikipedia, the parties’ own websites, and various articles concerning Dutch politics.  We attempt to rate the parties based on all information that is available, but due to language barriers, lack of information, or simple mistake we may have missed something.  If you feel our liberty ratings or general evaluations are incorrect, please let us know on our contact page or nicely in the comments and we’ll try to fix it.  If you have questions on how these ratings are created, feel free to ask as well.
**This spectrum shows economic liberty on the right axis and social liberty on the left axis, so 100 on both axis is “pure” libertarianism and 0 on both axis is pure authoritarianism for example.