Would you like to vote for politicians who studied in Delft? Or are you curious to know which candidates have a technical background, even if they don’t often mention it themselves? You can find an overview on the website vinddebetaopdelijst.nl (in Dutch).
The creators of the website have listed the candidate MPs who have studied engineering or natural sciences. It also states what they studied and whether, according to current polls, the candidate would enter parliament without preferential votes. To keep the overview manageable, they have limited themselves to parties that have a chance of winning a seat according to the Peilingwijzer (in Dutch).
This is the third time that this website has mapped out the science graduates. The initiative began in the run-up to the 2021 general election when the founders, including TU Delft alumni Hugo Bijmans (computer science and systems engineering, policy analysis and management) and Paul van Erp (aerospace engineering and civil engineering), first compiled the list in response to an opinion piece in the daily newspaper Trouw. The group also published an overview for the 2023 parliamentary elections (Dutch only).
Fewer science graduates standing for election
According to the creators, what is remarkable about this edition is an increase in the number of science graduates as party leaders. Henri Bontenbal (CDA, physics) and Chris Stoffer (SGP, civil engineering) were also party leaders in previous elections, but Lidewij de Vos (FvD, chemistry) has now joined them. However, the total number of science graduates on the lists studied has decreased: the website counts 75, eight fewer than in 2023.
The website shows large differences between parties in the number of science graduates. NSC, DENK and 50PLUS have only one, while the SGP has no fewer than fourteen candidates. Most of them seem to have little chance of actually entering the House of Representatives for the time being. According to current polls (2-4 seats for SGP), only the party leader will be able to do so without preferential votes. CDA and GroenLinks-PvdA have the most ‘likely’ candidates. According to current polls and without preferential votes, both parties would get four science graduates a seat in the House of Representatives.
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