General elections were held in the Netherlands on 28 April 1971.^[1] The Labour Party (PvdA) emerged as the largest party, winning 39 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.^[2] The elections were the first without compulsory voting, causing a sharp fall in voter turnout, down to 79% from 95% in the 1967 elections.^[3] Barend Biesheuvel of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) became prime minister, leading the first Biesheuvel cabinet.

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1971 Dutch general election

← 1967 28 April 1971 1972 →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	79.12% ( 15.88pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– PvdA Joop den Uyl 24.60 39 +2 KVP Gerard Veringa 21.84 35 −7 VVD Molly Geertsema 10.34 16 −1 ARP Barend Biesheuvel 8.59 13 −2 D66 Hans van Mierlo 6.77 11 +4 CHU Bé Udink 6.32 10 −2 DS'70 Willem Drees Jr. 5.33 8 New CPN Marcus Bakker 3.90 6 +1 SGP Hette Abma [nl] 2.35 3 0 PPR Jacques Aarden 1.84 2 New GPV Piet Jongeling 1.61 2 +1 NMP Ab te Pas [nl] 1.51 2 New PSP Hans Wiebenga [nl] 1.44 2 −2 BP Hendrik Koekoek 1.10 1 −6 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Most voted-for party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after De Jong cabinet KVP–VVD–ARP–CHU First Biesheuvel cabinet KVP–VVD–ARP–CHU–DS70

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His cabinet contained a broad coalition of parties, with ministers from ARP, Christian Historical Union (both Protestant), the Catholic People's Party, the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and moderate socialist Democratic Socialists '70 (DS'70), which had just split off from the PvdA.

However, Biesheuvel's government was short-lived; following a decision to cut government spending, DS'70 withdrew from the government, causing it to lose its majority and fresh elections to be held after just a year and seven months.