1981 Dutch general election

← 1977 26 May 1981 1982 →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	87.0% ( 1.1 pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– CDA Dries van Agt 30.8% 48 −1 PvdA Joop den Uyl 28.3% 44 −9 VVD Hans Wiegel 17.3% 26 −2 D66 Jan Terlouw 11.1% 17 +9 PSP Fred van der Spek 2.1% 3 +2 CPN Marcus Bakker 2.1% 3 +1 SGP Henk van Rossum 2.0% 3 0 PPR Ria Beckers 2.0% 3 0 RPF Meindert Leerling 1.2% 2 +2 GPV Gert Schutte 0.8% 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Most voted-for party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after First Van Agt cabinet CDA–VVD Second Van Agt cabinet CDA–PvdA–D66

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 26 May 1981.^[1][2] The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) emerged as the largest party, winning 48 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.^[3]

The incumbent Christian Democratic Appeal-People's Party for Freedom and Democracy coalition lost its overall majority leading to a new coalition being formed between the CDA, the Labour Party (PvdA) and Democrats 66, with the CDA's Dries van Agt continuing as Prime Minister. However due to disagreements between the CDA and PvdA on government spending the coalition collapsed after just a year, leading to fresh elections.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Appeal	2,677,259	30.81	48	–1
	Labour Party	2,458,452	28.29	44	–9
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,505,311	17.32	26	–2
	Democrats 66	961,121	11.06	17	+9
	Pacifist Socialist Party	184,422	2.12	3	+2
	Communist Party of the Netherlands	178,292	2.05	3	+1
	Reformed Political Party	171,324	1.97	3	0
	Political Party of Radicals	171,042	1.97	3	0
	Reformatory Political Federation	108,364	1.25	2	+2
	Reformed Political League	70,878	0.82	1	0
	Democratic Socialists '70	48,568	0.56	0	–1
	Evangelical People's Party	45,189	0.52	0	New
	Socialist Party	30,380	0.35	0	0
	Roman Catholic Party of the Netherlands	20,812	0.24	0	0
	Rightist People's Party	17,371	0.20	0	–1
	Centre Party	12,242	0.14	0	New
	Dutch People's Union	10,641	0.12	0	0
	Liveable Netherlands	8,336	0.10	0	New
	Survive Together or Die	3,377	0.04	0	New
	Realists '81	2,080	0.02	0	New
	International Communist League	1,814	0.02	0	New
	God with Us	918	0.01	0	New
	Wereld Welzijn Bewustwording	891	0.01	0	New
	Party for the Liquidation of the Netherlands	826	0.01	0	New
	The Peace Party	464	0.01	0	New
	Partij Van Rijksgenoten	207	0.00	0	New
	Small Party	186	0.00	0	New
	Dutch Evolution Party	70	0.00	0	New
Total		8,690,837	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		8,690,837	99.46
Invalid/blank votes		47,401	0.54
Total votes		8,738,238	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,040,121	87.03
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province^[4]

Province	CDA	PvdA	VVD	D'66	PSP	CPN	SGP	PPR	RPF	GPV	Others
Drenthe	24.8	38.6	17.8	9.3	1.3	1.3	0.3	1.6	1.5	1.6	1.9
Friesland	33.2	33.2	12.7	9.5	1.7	1.7	0.8	1.8	2.1	1.4	1.9
Gelderland	34.4	26.1	16.6	10.2	2.1	0.8	3.4	2.1	1.7	0.5	2.1
Groningen	21.4	39.3	13.4	8.8	2.6	4.1	0.2	2.2	1.7	3.7	2.6
Limburg	43.4	25.3	12.6	11.2	1.6	1.1	0.1	1.9	0.1	0.1	2.6
North Brabant	42.7	23.6	14.5	11.2	1.9	0.9	0.5	1.9	0.3	0.1	2.4
North Holland	22.7	28.4	21.3	12.4	3.5	5.3	0.4	2.4	0.8	0.3	2.5
Overijssel	37.8	26.8	13.2	9.2	1.2	1.1	2.8	1.5	2.4	2.1	1.9
South Holland	23.7	31.2	19.8	12.0	1.9	1.9	3.5	1.7	1.8	1.6	0.9
Southern IJsselmeer Polders	20.8	30.8	18.9	14.6	1.7	4.6	0.6	2.4	1.5	1.0	3.1
Utrecht	28.9	22.6	21.9	11.4	2.5	1.4	3.0	2.5	1.8	1.4	2.6
Zeeland	29.5	27.2	17.0	9.9	1.1	0.7	8.0	1.8	1.9	1.2	1.7