Samenvatting

An election victory is no guarantee of a place in the executive board of a Dutch province, as populist parties such as SP, PVV and FVD show: after their respective election victories in 2007, 2011, and 2019, they hardly secured any board seats. In the years that these parties have been successful, there are few provincial boards that are a reflection of the provincial councils – boards where the seats of the provincial executive are divided proportionally on the basis of the seats of the council. Coalition formation at provincial level is studied by determining whether there is a board that is a reflection of the provincial council or a minimally winning coalition. The authors do this for all election years between 2007 and 2023. The data show that the rise of populist parties often leads to a decrease in boards that are a reflection of the provincial councils. The minimum winning coalition is a better explanation. The rise of BBB in 2023 shows that a party that opposes the board is still included in many executive boards. This seems to be the case because without BBB many parties are needed to form a majority council.