Opposition (62) The House of Representatives (Dutch: Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal [ˈtʋeːdə ˈkaːmər dɛr ˈstaːtə(ŋ) ɣeːnəˈraːl] ⓘ, literally "Second Chamber of the States General", or simply Tweede Kamer) is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate.

Through functions like the scrutiny and political discussions before meetings of the Council of the European Union, the appointment of EU-rapporteurs, and participation in the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs the House of Representatives also plays a role in EU policy making.

[4] The House of Representatives is also responsible for the first round of selection for judges to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

Seats are allocated among the parties using the D'Hondt method[7] with an election threshold of 0.67% (a Hare quota).

[8] Parties may choose to compete with different candidate lists in each of the country's twenty electoral circles.

If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received.

[13] After all seats are allocated, a series of negotiations take place in order to form a government that, usually, commands a majority in the chamber.

Since 2012, the House of Representatives appoints a "scout" to ask the major party leaders about prospective coalitions.

On basis of the scout's interviews, the House of Representatives then appoints an informateur, who checks out possible coalitions, and a formateur, who leads negotiations.

It typically takes a few months before the formateur is ready to accept a royal invitation to form a government and become prime minister.

Such fragmentation makes it nearly impossible for one party to win the 76 seats needed for a majority in the House of Representatives.

Since the current party-list proportional representation system was introduced in 1917, no party has approached the number of seats needed for an outright majority.