Surprise gains by D66 party could prompt government focus on R&D spending and climate science
The results of the Dutch general election on 17 March could be good news for universities and research institutes, as the D66 liberal party, which is strongly in favour of increasing public R&D expenditure, gained a surprising five seats and ended up with 24 in total.
D66 is now the second-largest party after the conservative-liberal VVD, which gained two seats to take its total to 35. The Christian Democratic Appeal, previously the second-largest party, dropped from 19 to 15 seats and is now the fourth-largest party in the Netherlands after the populist Party for Freedom.