The EU is the elephant in the room in the Dutch snap election campaign

A notable trend can be observed in Dutch politics: despite mounting global instability and growing European influence over national policy, the European Union remains largely absent from the national electoral campaign.

While international events—such as the war on Europe’s eastern flank, renewed geopolitical tensions, and shifts in global trade dynamics—dominate headlines, most Dutch political parties have been relatively silent on what these developments mean for the Netherlands' role in Europe.

This absence is not the result of irrelevance. On the contrary: European integration has become a defining framework for a wide range of domestic policies. Decisions made in the EU and with active Dutch participation shape key areas of national concern, including environmental regulations, digital governance, migration management, and energy security. For some decades already, European policy is no longer a matter or foreign politics at a distance — the EU dimension is deeply embedded in the way national governments operate.

Yet, in The Hague, most political discussions about the EU remain limited to the single dimension of either more or less European integration. For most political parties, the EU is a politically sensitive issue: too complex for soundbites, too internally divisive for campaigning, and too interconnected to offer easy solutions.

As a result, how European policies should effectively be designed is treated as a secondary concern—something to be addressed after the elections, between experts and behind closed doors. While the policy impact and legal significance of the EU continues to expand, the concrete dilemmas and substantial issues at stake in Brussels’ negotiations rarely feature prominently in domestic campaign speeches, televised debates, or party manifestos.

That’s especially striking, since Dutch elections determine not only who will hold office in The Hague, but also how the Netherlands positions itself in Brussels. This push and pull, shaping and taking works both ways: political choices in The Hague are shaped by commitments in Brussels, and vice versa. In today’s politics, national and European arenas are not separate - they’re inseparable.

The Netherlands’ outlook upon European integration has long been defined by its Atlantic ties, with Washington and London at the center. But as the post-war order frays, Dutch foreign policy is being forced onto a new path. With war raging in Europe and a United States that looks increasingly unreliable—or even hostile—keeping to the old course is no longer functional or feasible.

The next Dutch government will have to look less to Washington and more to Brussels, embracing a stronger, more cooperative role inside the EU. That means future political leaders should spell out to their voters why European unity matters now, and show how tightly Dutch security and prosperity are bound to it.

EU elephant

The current campaign season has until now largely failed to reflect this new reality. It is striking how major political issues subject to EU-27 decision making, such as climate goals, asylum coordination, digital markets legislation, and joint defense initiatives—are discussed primarily as national challenges. This widens the disconnect between political rhetoric and policy practice.

There’s also a democratic angle. While the EU is often criticized for being technocratic and distant, the real democratic gap lies in domestic politics, where the implications of European decisions are rarely explained or debated. Without politicians who dare to open up this discussion, voters are left with little sense of how EU policies touch upon their daily lives and how their own representatives help shape EU politics. The result: a lack of political ownership of European integration and less understanding by the electorate, whereas the EU’s reach keeps expanding through coordinated efforts of the same national politicians. 

National election campaigns offer a key opportunity to close this gap. They are not just moments of choice; they are moments of clarity. Voters deserve to know how parties view the EU’s future, what priorities they aim to defend at the European level, and how they plan to navigate possible tensions between national interests and collective European goals. That means all parties would have to spell out where they stand on issues like EU enlargement, funding Europe’s defense, the future of the single market, and ties with powers such as the US and China.

To be sure: many parties are aware of these choices and some do discuss them in their programmes, yet most do not justify their European stance to the electorate. These aren’t questions for experts alone, they’re political choices with sweeping consequences. And they deserve open debate, especially ahead of national elections.

Whether Dutch leaders are ready to pull Europe squarely into the public debate is still an open question. But the direction of policymaking shows this is no longer optional. As Europe keeps shaping what’s possible at home, domestic politics will have to catch up.

For now, Europe remains the elephant in the room of the Dutch campaign: it is there, it is hugely relevant, yet it is strangely ignored.

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