The far-right PVV skipped one-third of parliamentary debates and committee hearings in the last year, despite having the largest contingent of MPs to call upon, figures obtained by broadcaster NOS show.
Geert Wilders’ party attended 230 plenary debates in the chamber, just over half the total, and 288 out of 353 committee sessions.
The attendance figures are far lower than for the main opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA or the coalition partners VVD and NSC. One PVV MP, Vincent van den Born, has not attended a single debate or asked a question in parliament since being elected in November 2023.
Only the smallest parties with five members or fewer turned up to fewer debates than the PVV’s 37-strong contingent.
The PVV was also far less active in other aspects of lawmaking, tabling just 271 motions and submitting 25 amendments. The migrants’ rights party DENK, with three seats, put down 353 motions, while JA21, with a single MP, managed 27 amendments.
The progressive-liberal D66, with nine seats, attended 265 debates and 231 committee hearings in the last year. The party also put down more motions and four times as many amendments as the PVV.
Key debates
The absence of Wilders’ team was a frequent talking point during debates in the past year, including on key issues such as military support for Ukraine and the minimum wage.
Wilders, meanwhile, mocked GroenLinks-PvdA MPs who missed the debate on the asylum bill two weeks ago to attend Keti Koti, the annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery.
In their absence the PVV unexpectedly secured a majority for an amendment making it a criminal offence for failed asylum seekers to stay in the country without authorisation.
The Socialist Party (SP) has suggested MPs who frequently miss debates should face pay cuts or other sanctions from parliament’s steering committee, but this would be constitutionally complicated as it would infringe on their status as independent representatives of the people.
SP leader Jimmy Dijk, whose five MPs tabled twice as many motions as the PVV in the last year, said the failure of the PVV to show up for debates was “downright anti-social” and accused the party of “pulling the wool over voters‘ eyes.”
Caroline van der Plas, leader of the farmers’ party BBB, the smallest party in the former right-wing coalition, said the debating chamber was where MPs did their most valuable work. She was critical of the opposition MPs who missed parliamentary business to attend Keti Koti.
“I wouldn’t be able to stomach it if one of my MPs had never been involved in anything while he was drawing €144,000 a year,” she said.