The local parties claim a place at the table

The election gains of the local parties were enormous this year. The share of the local parties in the municipal council has been growing for some time, but participation in the coalitions has often not been forthcoming. This year, the local parties managed to cash in on their election gains.

Research by NH Nieuws shows that the Noord-Holland local parties received 37 percent of the votes and that 30 percent of the alderman posts are now held by a local party. This appears to be less than the national average. The NOS also researched the share of the local parties in the councils and concluded that the local parties received 31 percent of the vote and 37 percent of the alderman posts.

coalitions

The North Holland local parties are better represented in the coalitions than in the colleges. In 2018, 27 percent of coalitions consisted of local parties and by 2022 this share has increased to almost 40 percent. In some municipalities this growth took on a historical significance, such as in Haarlem. there is the Action party the first local party to join the coalition.

In addition to Haarlem, there are more municipalities where the locals are back in the coalition or co-government for the first time. In Huizen, Ouder-Amstel, Waterland and in six other municipalities, the local parties have secured a place in the coalition, unlike in 2018.

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college

The local parties have supplied more aldermen than four years ago, but the share is not very high. In North Holland, 30 percent of aldermen come from a local party. That is 6 percent more than four years ago, but not very high compared to other provinces. Research by the NOS shows that only Flevoland and Utrecht have fewer local aldermen. In Limburg, the local parties provide the majority of aldermen: 51 percent.

Not all local parties managed to find a suitable alderman. In those cases, preference was given to a candidate from a national party. For example, the local party Goed voor Amstelveen does participate in the coalition, but they do not supply an alderman. Jacqueline Höcker thought it was too early for her new Amstelveen party to put forward an alderman.

Yet there is still one place where the local parties are invisible. Noord-Holland currently does not have a single mayor of a local party. All 44 North Holland mayors are affiliated with the national party.

Just wait a little longer

In Noord-Holland, most coalitions are concluded much faster than in the rest of the Netherlands. However, not all municipalities are ready yet. We still have to wait for Bergen and Den Helder. In Bergen they have lost confidence in all possible combinations and they are now aiming for a council-wide agreement, but that will take a while.

It is also bumblebee lessons in Den Helder. An agreement has now been reached after months of consultation. The big winner Good governance initially had to take place in the opposition with 7 seats because the other parties no longer wanted to work with them. After a week in the opposition, Proper Administration fell apart after three councilors split from the party.

Offside

Not all local parties have secured a place in the coalition. In Heemstede, Bloemendaal and Opmeer, the local parties have fallen by the wayside. The composition of the coalition in Opmeer is very striking. GemeenteBelangen, Door Cooperation Vooruit and the Local Party Opmeer won seven of the fifteen seats together, but they were unable to cash in on their seat gains in a dominant position.

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It is striking that not all winners automatically received a place in the coalition. so won Group Tonnaer in Hoorn the elections with 5 seats, but they were pushed aside during the negotiations. It is the first time for Hoorn that the largest party was not allowed to participate in the coalition.

In Gooie Lakes The same fate befell the Gooise Democratic Platform. They became convincingly the largest with 7 seats and spoke of ‘a landslide’ because the VVD had been in power since 1978. Yet they failed to come to an agreement with the other parties, so that the VVD ended up in the municipal council as usual. The winner of the Goois Democratic Platform is now in the opposition with 7 seats.

To persevere

The coming period will show whether the local parties can also hold their own in the coalitions and councils. In beverwijk and in Bloemendaal the lectures collapsed after just a few weeks.

Things went wrong in Beverwijk after a photo went around in which the candidate alderman Halil Koçak, a member of the largest party Samen Lokaal Beverwijk, made the gray wolf sign. The rest of the coalition did not want to continue with him because he no distance wanted to do from the Turkish far-right organization.

In Bloemendaal, things went wrong due to an integrity issue. According to the committee, Rob Slewe was not responsible for handling confidential information. With the new alderman Henk Wijkhuisen, Bloemendaal now has a council again.