Netherlands

Nearly half (47 percent) of women in local politics face threats and hate online, compared to 35 percent of their male colleagues. Female politicians from progressive parties are particularly often targeted, according to new research commissioned by the Cabinet.

Dutch voters may be about to get someone very different from the outgoing veteran prime minister Mark Rutte.

A former refugee, Dilan Yeşilgöz, who succeeded Rutte as leader of the VVD party, is now leading the polls ahead of Wednesday’s vote and could become the first female prime minister in Dutch history.

Six years after Sigrid Kaag was catapulted into the highest ranks of Dutch politics, police keep a constant watch over her home. Cameras sweep across the back of the property while every piece of mail sent to her is screened before she can open it.

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The new government has been sworn into office in the Netherlands, a record 299 days after the country's last election.Mark Rutte is now set to become the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister as he leads a fourth separate executive. Rutte has already headed three coalitions and only narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in parliament last April.

With female participation in this week’s election in the Netherlands breaking records, one campaign group can be excused for feeling optimistic.

Stem op een Vrouw(Vote for A Women) was set up in 2017 to achieve parity in the Dutch parliament and have as many women and men in the 150-seat parliament.

A Socialist Party MP is leaving parliament because she does not feel she can combine her work as a parliamentarian with being a mother.

Nine Kooiman, 37, has been an MP for nearly eight years and had her first child last year.