1956 Dutch general election

← 1952 13 June 1956 1959 →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	95.5% ( 0.5 pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– PvdA Willem Drees 32.7% 50 +20 KVP Carl Romme 31.7% 49 +19 ARP Jelle Zijlstra 9.9% 15 +3 VVD Pieter Oud 8.8% 13 +4 CHU Hendrik Tilanus 8.4% 13 +4 CPN Paul de Groot 4.7% 7 +1 SGP Pieter Zandt 2.3% 3 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Seats Cabinet before Cabinet after Second Drees cabinet PvdA–KVP–ARP–CHU Third Drees cabinet PvdA–KVP–ARP–CHU

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 13 June 1956.^[1] For the first time, the Labour Party (PvdA) emerged as the largest party, winning 50 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.^[2]

The elections led to the continuation of the four-party coalition government, consisting of the PvdA, Catholic People's Party, Anti-Revolutionary Party and Christian Historical Union.

Electoral system

Prior to the elections the number of seats in the House of Representatives was raised from 100 to 150.^[3] This meant that the electoral threshold was reduced from 1% to 0.67%.^[3]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Party	1,872,201	32.69	50	+20
	Catholic People's Party	1,815,288	31.69	49	+19
	Anti-Revolutionary Party	567,529	9.91	15	+3
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	502,530	8.77	13	+4
	Christian Historical Union	482,915	8.43	13	+4
	Communist Party of the Netherlands	272,050	4.75	7	+1
	Reformed Political Party	129,515	2.26	3	+1
	Reformed Political League	37,208	0.65	0	0
	National Union	28,960	0.51	0	New
	National Opposition Union	19,503	0.34	0	New
Total		5,727,699	100.00	150	+50
Valid votes		5,727,699	97.90
Invalid/blank votes		122,626	2.10
Total votes		5,850,325	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,122,732	95.55
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province^[4]

Province	PvdA	KVP	ARP	VVD	CHU	CPN	SGP	Others
Drenthe	44.6	6.9	15.7	15.2	12.2	3.4	0.3	1.8
Friesland	40.9	6.9	22.0	8.4	16.0	3.5	0.7	1.5
Gelderland	31.3	32.2	9.3	7.9	13.1	1.4	3.8	1.1
Groningen	42.2	5.9	17.3	12.9	9.6	7.6	0.2	4.2
Limburg	17.5	78.6	0.8	0.9	0.6	1.0	0.0	0.6
North Brabant	16.4	74.9	2.7	2.0	2.3	0.6	0.6	0.6
North Holland	37.3	23.7	8.2	11.8	5.1	11.9	0.6	1.4
Overijssel	31.8	28.0	10.2	7.6	13.1	4.2	3.0	2.2
South Holland	37.9	18.7	12.3	11.3	9.4	4.8	3.9	1.7
Southern IJsselmeer Polders	28.0	24.8	19.6	7.6	14.5	1.4	2.4	1.7
Utrecht	32.6	25.8	12.9	9.3	11.1	2.6	3.7	2.0
Zeeland	32.0	20.9	12.8	8.1	15.4	0.6	9.0	1.3