The First and Second Chambers will meet on November 20, 2025, in a Special Joint Assembly at the Great Church in The Hague. During this meeting, they will reflect on the fact that it has been 80 years since the parliament first convened again after World War II. The Special Joint Assembly is organized only on exceptional occasions. The States General will use the symbolic date of November 20, 2025, to look back on the end of the war and the significance of freedom in a time of conflict and polarization. The transmission of the values of freedom and the rule of law to future generations will be an important theme of this assembly.
November 20, 1945 marks an important moment in our parliamentary history: on this day, the First and Second Chambers met for the first time again since they had been suspended during World War II. After liberation, the Dutch Kingdom faced not only physical reconstruction but also the need to restore parliamentary democracy. The first Joint Assembly of the States General in 1945 was a first step towards that. In a temporarily restored Ridderzaal in The Hague, Queen Wilhelmina delivered the throne speech. The message was that the Netherlands had to rebuild itself from the ruins of the war. The Joint Assembly itself was a symbolic turning point whose value cannot be underestimated: after a period of oppression and great human suffering, parliamentary democracy could start again.
80 years of freedom have been commemorated and celebrated in various places over the past year. On September 12, 2024, the national start of the anniversary year 80 years of freedom took place in Mesch, Limburg. In the presence of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, attendees followed the route that the Allies took eighty years earlier from Belgium to the Netherlands.
The Presidents of the First and Second Chambers participated in various ceremonies. In addition to the National Remembrance Day on the Dam on May 4, the Presidents of the First and Second Chambers also laid wreaths at memorials in Arnhem, Scheveningen, Oosterbeek, Amsterdam, Soesterberg, and at the Waalsdorpervlakte. In August, special attention was given to the victims of the war in former Dutch East Indies: the Chamber Presidents attended the commemoration at the Indonesian plaque on August 14 in the Second Chamber and at the national commemoration at the Indonesian Monument on August 15 in The Hague.
The Special Joint Assembly will take place on Thursday, November 20, from 10:30 to 11:30 AM at the Great Church in The Hague.
