Dutch withdrawal from the European Union

Nexit is the hypothetical withdrawal of the Netherlands from the European Union. The idea carried some political sway historically, seeing increased popularity around the same time that the United Kingdom voted to withdraw from the EU, but since then has been discarded as a policy by the largest party that had favoured it.

Political initiatives

In 2016, former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte called the possibility of a referendum "utterly irresponsible" and dangerous to the country. Political parties that are Hard Eurosceptic, or have called for a referendum on European Union membership, include the right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV) and Forum for Democracy (FvD). As of 2025, these parties currently hold less than a third of the seats in the House of Representatives.
Leading up to the 2024 European Parliament election, the most electorally successful Eurosceptic party in the Netherlands PVV renounced their wish for a Dutch withdrawal from the European Union, which was found by Ipsos to have a minimal effect on their polling.

Public opinion

A poll in the Netherlands by the Pew Research Center in June 2016, conducted before the 2016 [United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|British referendum] which led to the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, found 51% of the Dutch respondents to have a positive view of the European Union and 46% a negative view. Another poll by peil.nl in the aftermath of the 2016 British referendum found 50% of the respondents to be against a similar referendum in their country, with 46% of those in favour of remaining in the EU compared to 43% overall against remaining.